Overview

Fairytales form a cornerstone of children’s and YA literature studies, and the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ has been translated, adapted and retold across the years. Reading Children’s Fairytales: Inside the Gingerbread House brings together leading and emerging researchers and practitioners to showcase how interdisciplinary approaches enable diverse responses to texts. This edited collection opens up possibilities for cross-pollination between critical, multimodal and creative approaches. It celebrates multiple forms of knowledge and meaning-making within and beyond academic discourse, and engages young people in the conversation. The authors explore a wide range of retellings of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, from children’s picturebooks, graphic novels, poetry and young adult fiction to sculpture and Hip-Hop, to offer a comprehensive investigation of the tale. The volume also benefits from the voices of acclaimed creative writers who create and reflect on retellings that cross cultural and international boundaries. In engaging with such a range of popular retellings, the chapters bring a renewed attention to the need to disrupt hierarchical and canonical perspectives on children’s and YA literature.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mette Lindahl-Wise ,  Harry Oulton ,  Vicky Macleroy (Goldsmiths, University of London) ,  Emily Corbett
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
ISBN:  

9781032907260

ISBN 10:   1032907266
Pages:   242
Publication Date:   17 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Preface Harry Oulton, Mette Lindahl-Wise, Vicky Macleroy and Emily Corbett Introduction Jack Zipes Section 1: Theoretical Perspectives 01. Silently Taking up Space: Gretel Retells Alice Penfold 02. A Word after a Word is Power: Fairy Tale Misogyny Reinforced and Overthrown Mette Lindahl-Wise 03. Using Critical Race Theory to Explore the Potential of Children’s Texts as Counternarratives Seraphina Simmons-Bah 04. Defamiliarising the Forest: An Eco-gothic Reading of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Sara Shahwan 05. Translating and Transforming ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Jack Zipes 06. The Hourglass of Adaptation Harry Oulton Section 2: Multimodal Approaches 07. The Fairy Tales Live On: Marketing ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and Other Tales to a Young Adult Audience Emily Corbett 08. Exploring the Transgressive, Taboo and Far Out in a Graphic Novel of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Vicky Macleroy 09. Feeling the Story: A New Materialist Approach to Exploring an Embodied Reading of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ in The Singing Bones Helen Jones 10. Hip Hop Hansel and Gretel Christian Foley 11. Entangled Adaptations: Gretel Redesigned Sam Holdstock Section 3: Personal and Creative Responses 12. Approaching ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Inside Out Michael Rosen 13. Using ‘Hansel and Gretel’ to Nurture Creative Healing and Augment Psychic Realities Francis Gilbert 14. ‘Hansel and Gretel’ – Sustaining Stories and the Ache for Home in Red Leaves Sita Brahmachari 15. We'll Leave The Light On For You Anna Dempsey 16. Hanif and Gazal Ardashir Vakil

Reviews

Author Information

Mette Lindahl-Wise is a children's literature PhD researcher at Goldsmiths. Her research focuses on the representations of females (children and adults) in the Carnegie Winners. A central component of her PhD is action research with a group of teenage girls to understand how they read and perceive these representations. She holds an MA in Anglo-American Literary Relations from University College London and an MA in Children’s Literature from Goldsmiths. Mette has published several articles on her research and is also an Associate Lecturer on Goldsmith's Children’s Literature MA programme. Harry Oulton is currently in the final year of his creative writing PhD and is an associate lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College. His YA novel is an adaptation which combines elements from 15th-century letters, a Robert Louis Stevenson novel from the 19th century and a family biography from 2004 to create a piece of original fiction. Harry worked at the BBC and Granada for over 20 years, including stints as a script editor, drama producer and ultimately executive producer of the BAFTA-nominated The Great Train Robbery. He has written and published three middle-grade novels, a book of writer’s prompts, short fiction, articles on adaptation and three award-winning short films. Vicky Macleroy is a Professor of Language and Literacy, Head of the MA Children’s Literature programme (2021–2025) and Director of the Research Centre for Language, Culture and Learning at Goldsmiths, University of London (2016–2025). Her work focuses on linguistic diversity, multimodality and children’s/Young Adult literature; literacy and digital storytelling; language development, poetry and multilingualism; and activist citizenship and transformative pedagogy. Underpinning her research is a commitment to research methodologies that embrace collaborative and creative ways of researching. Vicky is co-director of an international literacy project ‘Critical Connections Multilingual Digital Storytelling’ (2012-ongoing) that uses digital storytelling to support engagement with language and literacy. Emily Corbett is a children’s and YA literature specialist with particular interest in the British book market and paratextual materials. Emily serves as General Editor for The International Journal of Young Adult Literature. Her monograph In Transition: Young Adult Literature and Transgender Representation (2024) was published with the University Press of Mississippi.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions