Hansel and Gretel

But make it fashion

Hansel and Gretel written by Stephen King and illustrated by Maurice Sendak was published by Harper Collins on September 2, 2025!

Pretty epic author/illustrator pairing, right!?

And if you’re wondering how it worked out since Maurice Sendak passed away several years ago, Publisher’s Weekly gives a good explanation in their starred review for the book: "This splendidly chilling variation of the Brothers Grimm story is built around costume and set designs that late Caldecott Medalist Sendak produced for a Humperdinck opera... While the narrative’s characterizations and diction hew to tradition its horrors land with fresh force in an epic retelling that suits the illustrations’ eerie magnificence."

Reading Stephen King’s version left me with a thrilled feeling, a big smile, and an increased curiosity for fairy tales. I want to go back and read more Grimm’s stories and pull out my copy of Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino. Don’t you just love how folk and fairy tales can be both so satisfying and so shocking!

Above I’ve included one of my favorite illustrations from the book. I love the gesture, or pose, of the fox and the rabbit and the overall shape or silhouette of the boy and girl sleeping among the plants. It’s very cozy, compact, and secure. Also isn’t the scale of those plants and fruits so interesting?! I think the fact that these illustrations were made to help design the sets of the show makes it so magical and more fanciful! Plus I feel like it’s no mistake to have made the food so large as our main characters are now in a state of abundance. Maurice Sendak was a genius!

For the Picture Book Look, I wore a shift dress whose color I am having a hard time identifying (votes in the comments, please?). But it’s kind of a metallic brown green, kind of not haha, but it did match the vibe of the leaves on the cover. I wore a black floral lace button up top over that and my tan ankle boots.

And though not visible in the photo I wore a pair of beautiful handmade earrings that I bought from Courtney Donovan who runs Paper Moth Studio. Check it out, she has the most beautiful paper-cut jewelry!

Look at these cute little foxes!! *swoon* I picked them to wear since they were giving forest vibes, but was even happier when I saw that there was indeed a fox featured in my favorite spread of the book! Meant to be haha.

Alrighty, thank you again for reading along! Shoutout to Irene D. at work for almost always taking the photos for me!

You can grab a copy of Hansel and Gretel at Warwick’s or Bookshop.org!