Tales from Grimm

Title: Tales from Grimm
ISBN:0-8166-4936-7
Translated and Illustrated by: Wanda Gag
Date of publication:1936
Award won: Caldecott Honor and Newbery Honor winner
Age recommendation: 9-12
Group represented: A variety of characters from many places. People and Animal's represented

I read five stories out of Tales from Grimm.

Hansel and Gretel:

Hansel and Gretel tells about a family of four living in a hut in the woods. The family consisted of a Dad, who was a woodchooper, a step mother, and 2 children, Hansel and Gretel. Times were hard for the family and the woodchopper was having a hard time earning enough money to feed his family. When their food supply got very low the stepmother convinced the father, although he did not want his children to go, that they should take the children out into the woods and leave them there to live on their own. The mother and father could not afford to feed them any longer. Hansel the older son overheard his father and step-mother's conversation and decided to think of a plan so he and his sister could find their way back to the house. When everyone was asleep Hansel snuck outside and filled his pockets with pebbles. The next day as Hansel was walking he made a trail of pebbles. When Hansel and Gretel were left in the woods by themselves that day, tricked by their parents, they were able to follow the pebble path back home. When the children arrived home their father was able to earn enough money for a while to keep them. When the food supply got low again the step mother convinced the father that they had to try and get rid of the kids again. Hansel also over heard this conversation, but when he went to sneak out this time to get more pebbles, the door was locked and he could not get out. This time as the family went into the foods, Hansel decided to leave a trail of bread crumbs behind because that was all he had. When Hansel and Gretel went to try and follow the path back, they realized that their trail had been eaten by the birds. The two children were lost and wondered around in the forest until they came to a house made out of candy. The children began eating the house and then an old lady appeared who turned out to be a witch. The children trusted the old lady to care for them, but shortly after they arrived in her home they realized she was out to eat Hansel. She locked him in a goose coop outside and made Gretel cook lots of food to try and fatten him up. Finally, one day, Gretel got the witch to show her how to look in the oven to see it the food was done. While the witch was demonstrating this Gretel pushed the witch into the over and killed her. Then some bird friends they had made appeared and gave the children jewels for the bread crumbs they had left before that the birds had eaten. The little white bird that had helped them home before lead the children back to their house. Upon arriving home the children found their father alone and gave him all their new jewels and the family never had to worry about food or money again. The step mother had left the father because he was so sad that his children were gone.


Cat and Mouse Keep House:

This story is about a cat and a mouse that end up living together. The cat met the mouse and did not feel like eating him on one particular day. The cat and mouse set-up a house together in a dark corner of a barn that was padded with straw. The cat and mouse decided that they were going to be able to find a lot of food while it was warm out, but they wanted to plan ahead for winter. They got a can of lard and decided to hide it in a church under the alter so they would not eat it until winter. The cat got hungry, however, and lied to the mouse and told him he had to go to christenings of new family members that were being born into his family. Each time the cat would go to the church, he would eat part of the can of lard. The mouse never found out about what the cat was doing. One day when it got cold outside the mouse wanted to go the the church and eat some of the lard. The cat and mouse went to the church only to find the empty can in the place they had hidden it. The mouse put all things together and realized that the cat had been sneaking off and eating the lard. The mouse said oh I get it now, the names of the new baby kittens, Top-off, Half-gone and All-gone, just as the mouse was about to say the last name the cat got angry and at the mouse "All-gone."


Spindle, Shuttle and Needle:

This story is about a orphan girl who lived with her godmother at the edge of a village in a small cottage. They are poor and do not have much. The godmother became older and then died leaving the girl the little cottage and a spindle, shuttle and needle. The girl lived alone in the cottage and went about her daily work to keep food on her table. One day there was word that a prince was looking for a bride. He did not care for rich girls and his father would not let him marry a poor girl so he decided to look for someone that was both poor and rich. When the prince came to town to greet the richest girl in the village he was displeased with her because she was not poor and rich. He then asked to meet the poorest girl in the village and we brought to the orphan's cottage. The girl was so taken back by the prince that she could hardly look at him out her window. She was so happy after seeing that prince that she begins to sing to her spindle, needle, and shuttle. The spindle sets off magically to catch the prince and bring him back to her cottage, the shuttle goes out the door and begins to make a red carpet for the prince outside the cottage door, and the needle begins to make curtains and table clothes and fine things to spruce up the cottage. The prince is lead back to the cottage and sees the red carpet and all the fine things around the cottage and realizes that this is the girl he has been looking to marry. She is poor, but is still rich.



Doctor Know it All:

This story tells of a poor peasant named fish, he sets out in the village to sell the wood he has chopped down and comes upon a Doctor's Office. He asks the doctor what he needs to do in order to become a doctor himself because he sees that the doctor has fine things and good food to eat. The doctor tells the peasant that he needs to sell his things and use the money to buy a book of ABC's , jars of medicines and herbs, fine clothes, and a sign that says "Doctor know it all." The peasant sells his cart and ox and does all the things that the doctor tells him to do. Time goes by and a rich lord hears of this "doctor know it all" and asks him to help find his money that was stolen from him because he is supposed to know everything. The peasant accepts and is invited to the lord's house for dinner. When the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd courses come out from the kitchen during dinner the peasant, named Fish, leans over and comments to his wife, that "this is the first one" meaning the first course, but the servant who is also the thief thinks that the peasant is on to him and must know that he has committed these crimes. This goes on for all three courses until the servants think that the Peasant knows his secret and they tell him that if he keeps the secret that they will tell him where the money is hidden. The peasant ends up proving to the lord that he knows where the money is and also what is hidden in the final course dish without looking just by pure luck and not really because he knows anything at all. Word spreads about what great work the peasant "Doctor know it all" has done for the lord and the lord and his wife lived happily and had plenty of wealth and good things to eat.



The Musicians of Bremen:

This story is about a donkey, who meets a dog, and then a cat, and then a rooster, all on his way to Bremen to become a musician. All of the animals were getting older and were no longer needed or wanted by their owners anymore. They all decided that they were going to move to Bremen and become musicians to earn their way and live out the rest of their lives. While traveling to Bremen they got very tired and hungry and wanted to stop and eat. They came upon this house and inside were a bunch of robbers eating a feast. The animals decided that if they are came into the house at one time making lots of noise it would scare the robbers out of the house and they could eat the food. There plan worked and the robbers were so scared they ran out of the house and into the woods because they thought demons were haunting the house. All the animals made themselves comfortable for the night and fell asleep. One robber was sent back into the house to see if it was clear to enter and got so startled by the animals sleeping in various places around the house that he thought for sure the whole place was haunted. The robbers never returned to the house again and all the animals lived happily ever after until the end of their lives.





These stories could be used in a classroom when studying old fairy tales. The students could be assigned to have to make-up their own fairy tales and the class could make their own book of fairy tales to put in the school library. These fairy tales don't really teach a lesson as some due, this book could be used when teaching a lesson on different types of stories and what stories are or could be used for. A lot of these stories illustrate people that are poor at the beginning, but good things happen to them and they live happily in the end. Students could be assigned to make a book of short fairy tales. Students could act out some of the Grimm tales in class.