One of my favorite books of all time
A Tale Dark and Grimm now has a new companion novel. Adam Gidwitz returns with a new book based on the Grimm fairy tales, but we now have Jack and Jill as the main characters. These are not your average kind, cute fairy tales. Didwitz once again weaves a twisted and hair raising story, that just might keep you awake at night! See a full description below, and come check it at the library!
Horn Book (November/December, 2012)
This companion volume to A Tale Dark & Grimm (rev. 1/11) features
more macabre and humorous “once upon a time” takeoffs. Princess Jill is
the daughter of a very beautiful but selfish queen; her cousin Jack
lives in the village and longs to play with the other boys, who just
laugh at him. After Jill has a humiliating experience involving a dress
made of cloth that no one will admit they can’t see, she joins up with
Jack and a frog and they set off on a life-or-death quest to find the
“seeing glass.” Along the way they encounter goblins, mermaids, and a
terrible monster named Eidechse von Feuer, der Menschenfleischfressende,
each time outwitting what appears to be certain death; in a
spectacularly bloody and funny scene, they also face giants in the sky
(as the narrator warns, “What follows is the most disgusting thing I
have ever heard”). Gidwitz masterfully threads his lore and his
characters together, coming at last to a satisfying conclusion. A
closing note explains his source material, drawn from Grimm, Andersen,
Mother Goose, and even Christina Rossetti and the New Testament. The
book somehow manages to be gory, hilarious, touching, and lyrical all at
once, with tons of kid appeal.
