Customer Reviews

One-Eye! Two-Eyes! Three-Eyes!: A Very Grimm Fairy Tale

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Just when you've read your kid Cinderella for the million zillionth time, along comes Aaron Shepard to the rescue with this retelling of a less well known but very fun fairy tale. Poor little Two-Eyes is the weird kid in her family since she has an even number of eyes; her older sisters One-Eyes and Three-Eyes are, of course, perfectly lovely by cultural standards in the neighborhood. Two-Eyes must dress in rags, do all the dirty work, and eat only leftovers--until the goat she tends turns out to be magic and starts giving her food to eat. When Two-Eyes seems well fed for a change, her suspicious sisters decide to spy on her. All I can say is that if you're going to put your sisters to sleep with a magic charm, be sure to count their eyes VERY carefully first! Artist Gary Clement has a lot of fun with this tale, throwing in anachronisms such as a microwave and a box of tissues. Did I mention the fairy godmother, the magic apple tree, and the handsome knight/prince? Let your two-eyed child take a look at this story!

Little One Eye, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes was always one of my favorite fairy tales when I was growing up, so seeing it in its own picture book was just heaven to me.

And this version lives up to the one I grew up with, too.

Little Two-Eyes is despised by her sisters for being "different" (in the version I grew up with, it was for being normal, which makes more sense, but being "different" makes for a funnier punch line in the end) by having two eyes instead of one or three like they do. (Weirdly, they're shown watching TV with odd-eyed people.)

So they treat her like the classic red-headed stepchild - leftovers and rags - until she cries and cries. You can work out the gist of the end now, I'm sure :)

Very funny, and neat illustrations.

I'm an adult, and actually just read this tale recently for the first time, and wondered how in the heck I had missed out of this one when I was a kid. I had never heard of it. Well, I just read it to my young daughter, and we both loved it. It has most of the elements of a well written fairy tale: magic, tragic drama and love.

The story is about three sisters named: One Eye, Two Eyes and Three Eyes. One Eye only has one eye, Two Eyes has two like everybody else and Three Eyes has three. Because Two Eyes looks just like everybody else, she is discriminated against by her sisters who look different, and even by her mom. Two Eyes is taught a magic spell which helps make things better for her until her curious family discovered what was going on and put a stop to her using the spell. Two Eyes is then told by a helpful old lady how to grow a magical tree. This tree's fruit can only be plucked by Two Eyes, so her sisters' and mother's mean diligence doesn't pay off. In the end, Two Eyes is rescued from the evil clutches of her family by a knight, and the two of them live happily ever after in a castle. One day, Two Eyes' sisters come asking for help and Two Eyes' does nothing out of spite from the past, and she takes care of her sisters - a nice ending, with a good message.

Darien Summers, author of The Mischievous Hare, a children's book.

One of my very favorite fairy tales, One Eye, Two Eyes & Three Eyes has been adapted for younger children who might find the death of the goat in the original version, upsetting. Wonderful illustrations combined with the creative twist to the story makes very enjoyable reading. This tale can also be acted out by kids who love being dramatic.