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Iconic horror writer Stephen King has reimagined a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale: “Hansel and Gretel.” But King says he might never have done so if he hadn’t seen illustrations of the story by the late Maurice Sendak, best known for his work on “Where the Wild Things Are.”

The story of “Hansel and Gretel” follows two children abandoned in the forest by their stepmother. Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs behind to find their way home, but birds eat them, leaving the kids stranded. In the forest, they encounter a wicked witch who tricks them into entering her enticing candy house as part of her plan to eat them. But Hansel and Gretel escape by outsmarting her.

In his version, King calls the lost children ‘kiddos’ and places some of the blame on their father, who he calls a “real wimp” for allowing his wife to leave his kids in the forest.

“Forgive me for saying this, it’s a perfect Stephen King story,” King said, “in that it’s about kids who are brave and resourceful faced with a situation that’s terrible.”

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King said he’s been writing about kids like Hansel and Gretel his entire career, from Carrie White in “Carrie” to Mark Petrie in “Salem’s Lot.” He compared Petrie to Hansel.

“ I’m sure that Mark Petrie would not have left breadcrumbs for the birds to eat, but you know, you have to give Hansel a break on that,” King said.

King stuck to the Brothers Grimm story for the most part, he said, but he also wrote around Sendak’s illustrations, so they fit into the story. For example, he said, there is no dream sequence in the original fairytale, but Sendak drew a picture of the wicked witch flying over the moon with a bag of screaming children behind her. So, King wrote a new addition to the tale to incorporate that visual.

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Sendak died in 2012, and the images that appear in King’s retelling were originally drawn for a 1997 operatic production of “Hansel and Gretel.” Sendak did the set and costume designs for the Houston Grand Opera’s staging.

“I thought to myself, ‘I can bend the story just enough so that the pictures fit naturally,’” King said. “The thing is, you want to make it look like one person, one mind did the whole thing.”

Aside from the flying witch, King said an illustration that Sendak made of the witch’s house also inspired him to rewrite the classic tale. He said it highlights the duality of the story; to Hansel and Gretel, the candy house looks sweet and alluring. But in Sendak’s illustration, King said the house, “looks like a devil, sick of sin.”

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While King admits the story of “Hansel and Gretel” is terrifying, he said, “kids like scary things.” Plus, he said the story teaches resilience and problem-solving to kids who see themselves in the characters.

“Hansel and Gretel are brave children. They’re resourceful kids,” King said. “ I’m thinking of kids who are in abusive homes. Those are the kids that ‘Hansel and Gretel’ really speaks to: Those kids who have a hard row to hoe in life.”

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“Hansel and Gretel” isn’t King’s only recent work featuring a character overcoming obstacles. His novel “Never Flinch” came out in May and centers around Holly Gibney, a detective with autism. She has an overbearing mother and often feels inferior to other people. Gibney first appeared in King’s “Bill Hodges” book trilogy as a walk-on character, but King said, “She just stole the book. She stole my heart.”

“She’s interesting because she’s so smart, and when she’s pushed to the wall, she’s brave,” King said. “She can think outside the box.”

“Never Flinch” is not the last time readers will encounter Gibney, King said. With more projects in the works, King said he doesn’t see himself leaving the writing world anytime soon. He cites a quote from a 2025 Rolling Stone interview with Bruce Springsteen that encapsulates how he feels about continuing his work. Springsteen said, “Time is finite, and your performing time is finite.”

“My purpose in life, I guess, is to entertain people and to entertain myself. So if I’m doing that, I’m happy,” King said. “And if I get to a point where people are rolling their eyes and yawning behind their hands, it would be time to stop.”

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Emiko Tamagawa produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Grace Griffin produced it for the web.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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