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

Kindergarten-Grade 3—In the Grimm folktale, little Two-Eyes is despised by her family because she is common and sees as ordinary humans do. In Shepard's retelling, sisters One-Eye and Three-Eyes mistreat their youngest sibling because, having seen no one else, they believe her to be "different." Two-Eyes goes off to tend the goat, weeping because she's hungry. A fairy appears and tells her a magic spell that makes the goat provide food. In Grimm, as in Eric Kimmel's One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes (Holiday House, 1996), the goat is butchered after the sisters discover Two-Eyes's good fortune, whereas Shepard has them simply chasing the animal away. Instead of the fairy telling the girl to plant the goat's entrails, Shepard has her planting an ordinary seed. A tree with golden apples grows, and, because only Two-Eyes can pluck the fruit, she eventually marries the prince who asks for an apple. The alterations to the story are consistent with the lighthearted watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, which feature Two-Eyes microwaving her meager leftovers and One-Eye reading "Eye Claudius" while Three-Eyes peruses one book with one eye and a different volume with the other two. Children will enjoy the humor in this reincarnation, and it will make excellent fodder for reader's theater, with a script available on the author's Web site.