Solitude

I just finished the delightful first book in the Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. I met the author at the NCTE/NWP meeting last fall. In this story the girls have been shuffled from foster home to foster home after their parents disappear. They are eventually sent to live with a woman who claims to be their grandmother-even though they had been told by their father that she was dead. It turns out they are the great-great-great-great granddaughters of one of the famous Grimm Brothers and that the Grimm Fairy Tales are not fairy tales at all but history books. The grandmother lives in Ferryport Landing (which used to be called Fairyport Landing until the humans started moving in) with the Everafters (fairy tale characters). The girls soon find out they are next in line to become family fairy tale detectives when their grandmother is taken by a giant!
I laughed so many times reading this book. Buckley uses so many of the characters from well known fairy tales and gives them their own personalities. For instance, the mayor of Ferryport Landing is Mayor Charming who is THE Prince Charming. He thinks way too highly of himself and loves the power that comes with being in charge. The police officers are the Three Little Pigs who have taken on human form but can change back into their pig form and are not so little.
If you like fairy tales I think you’ll like this twist on the classics.

Next up: The Sisters Grimm:The Unusual Suspects