Stephen King's Hansel and Gretel a fairy-tale collaboration
Published: 7:15pm, 16 Feb 2025
An upcoming edition of Hansel and Gretel combines the dark and singular talents of two literary giants who apparently never met: Stephen King and the late Maurice Sendak.
HarperCollins Publishers announced that the King-Sendak reimagining of the famed Brothers Grimm tale about two lost children in a frightening forest is scheduled for September 13. King 's words will be complemented by sketches Sendak drew up for set and costume designs for a 1997 production of the Humperdinck opera adaptation.
The book was initiated by the Maurice Sendak Foundation. King, author of The Shining , Carrie and other horror classics, said he agreed to the project after seeing Sendak's illustrations. King in New York in 2017. The horror novelist says that in a way, he's been writing about kids like Hansel and Gretel all his life.
'Two of his pictures in particular spoke to me: one was of the wicked witch on her broom with a bag of kidnapped children riding behind her; the other was of the infamous candy house becoming a terrible face.
'I thought, 'This is what the house really looks like, a devil sick with sin, and it only shows that face when the kids turn their backs. I wanted to write that!'' King said.
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