Customer Reviews

The Juniper Tree: And Other Tales from Grimm

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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As a child I found this book at a garage sale. It instantly became one of my most treasured books - that was over 20 years ago. It has some of the most interesting Fairy Tales, many have a slightly "different twist" than your typical tales (some outright silly while others dark and bit disturbing). Most of the stories are 3 to 5 pages long and are very quick reading, and the sketched illustrations are beautifully detailed. Excellent stories for children and adults alike. With my current copy falling apart - I was happy to see the book has been re-issued!

After hearing Sendak speak of the tragic fate that has befallen the fairy tale, I immediately went online in search of the Juniper Tree collection, a seventies-era translation of Grimm's fairy tales that professed to be true to the originals.

According to Sendak, modern adaptations of fairy tales lack the vigor and violence of the originals, which themselves were adaptation of the spoken-word. Call it Disney-fication, but new translations seemed to candy-coat old tales into generic rubbish. Sendak said that he took on this commission in order to rejuvenate the fairy-tale genre. And I can only find success in the venture. The new translation adds spice to fairy tales that I have heard countless times, in addition to adding many more obscure fairy tales to a reader's collection. And Sendak's beautiful black and white illustrations certainly don't hurt the package. His characteristic drawings add life and excitement to the written word.

Definitely get this copy instead of any cheesy new version of a fairy tale. It's not as violent/different from normal fairy tale editions as I expected, but the change is significant enought to have warranted this translation. And sure, there isn't a Sendak illustration on every page, but kids need something to look forward to in a book, don't they?

My mom & step dad bought me this while on their honeymoon in Carmel in 1978 (I was 8 at the time). I loved it so much that it must be handled with care these days. Grimms fairy tales aren't necessarily for everyone. Several are very dark, but I truly enjoyed them. And who can beat Maurice Sendak as an illustrator???

You won't find any pixy dust in this adaptation of German fairy tales. Delving into the strange and bizarre, these stories aren't the kind you want to be reading your 4 year old before they go to bed at night. Simplistic in writing, engaging in content, entertaining in substance, these are great short stories for someone who enjoys the abnormal, the peculiar, and the extraordinary.

I have the complete collection of the grimms fairytales but this book has a relatively decent collection. I would still suggest the full collection.

If I had any one visual image deep in my brain when I began to write Take Me With You When You Go, it was Sendak's illustration in this collection of Hansel and Gretel lost in the woods, which I'd read and seen many years before. No one has illustrated fairy tales more richly than Sendak, and the collection he chose to combine is good, and Lore Segal's telling is fine. This is one of the best entry points for children into real fairy tales, as opposed to Disney. My own book attempts to bridge beyond Grimm and the older fairy tale tradition, but at the heart there's still the closely bonded Brother and Sister growing strong together on their own....Good grief! I just noticed that another one of the stories in the collection is actually titled "Brother and Sister." I'd totally forgotten.