Description

From Handsel and Gretel nibbling on a house made of finger food to Handerella trying to win over the handsome Finger Prints Knuckleheads is hands down fun! Earburt and Toeper give it two thumbs up! The combination of Joan Holub's pun-filled humor and Michael Slack's on-the-nose pictures make this a must-read for all ages.

  Fairy Tales with a Twist, 2009-04-09
By Erin Johnson (Mankato, MN)


For those of you who love fairy tales and the ways people take them and twist them around have I found the book for you!

Knuckleheads is a book of fairy tales in which the characters are hands, feet, thumbs and noses. It is by far one of the most amusing picture-book retellings of fairy tales that I have seen in a long time! We are treated to the tales of: "Handsel & Gretel," "Handerella," "Thumbilina," and "Nose White." The tales are quite condensed, and some of them are missing some major aspects of the story, like the parents in "Handsel & Gretel, but all-in-all the book is a lot of fun. The text itself is humorous and a bit slap-stick in nature, but when you combine that with the illustrations you have a hit on your hands! Parents will probably get a little bit more of the humor than the really young kids, but it's not at a level that is unattainable. I think this is one of those books, that, if a child loves it and reads it again and again, they will get more out of it with each reading.

Also, make sure to read ALL of the text on the pages. A good example is in the "Handerella" story, where there's a sign that reads: How to be a wicked stepsister in three easy steps: 1. Step on others' feelings. 2. Step on others' toes. 3. Step on anyone who gets in your way." You may not get the humor by just reading that, but when you add in the fact that her stepsisters are feet (plus the word stepsister) you have comedic gold on your hands. I think kids will totally love the humor of this book!

Notes on the Cover:
Honestly, if I hadn't heard about this one I probably wouldn't have picked it up. The title is in red and in the very center of the cover. I find the title so distracting that the first time I looked at it I didn't even notice that the little designs in the four corners of the book had the titles and the characters of the fairy tales that are in the book. Also, the little hand-vine that surrounds the title is very interesting upon closer inspection, but I find the title itself to be the focus of my attention and it really looks like a book that boys would enjoy just by glancing at the title. (And I do think boys will like this book!)


 (2 Customer Reviews)

Product details

Package height: 0.59 inches
Package length: 11.1 inches
Package width: 9.09 inches
Package weight: 15.24 ounces
Pages: 40
ISBN-13: 9780811855235
ISBN-10: 0811855236
Author: Joan Holub
Publication year: 2008-09-01