Monday, April 27, 2009

The Sisters Grimm - Book One: The Fairy-Tale Detectives [A Special Review]

Today's review is brought to you by my 8-year-old daughter. She read this book, a few months back, and has been after me to read it ever since. She even wrote up a book review for me! :-) [so I figured that I would share it with you all]
I was finally able to squeeze this book in-between a couple of my  review books, and I must say that I rather enjoyed it.

So, whether you have children around my daughter's age, or if you just like to read mystery/fairy-tales yourself, this is a book to be enjoyed by all ages!


Genre - Children's Fantasy
Year Published - 2007 (Published by Amulet Books - an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)
Length - 284 pages
Written by Michael Buckley
Illustrations by by Peter Ferguson

Rating: 5 Skulls [I will concur with my daughter's rating]

Plot Summary:
For Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, life hasn't been a fairy tale. After the mysterious disappearance of their parents, the sisters are sent to live with their grandmother - a woman they believed was dead! Granny Relda reveals that the girls have two famous ancestors, the Brothers Grimm, whose classic book of fairy tales is actually a collection of case files of magical mischief.

Now the girls must take on the family responsibility of being fairy-tale detectives.
Their first case? A roller-coaster ride of an adventure to stop a giant from destroying their new hometown.

Review:
First, I just have to let you know that my daughter is an avid-reader. We probably make a trip to the bookstore at least once a week! She found this book herself, and has since read all seven books [I believe that an 8th is currently being written]

Here is my daughter's review - verbatim:

"The Sisters Grimm is a lip-smacking, eye-bobbing, heart-stopping, most exciting book that I have ever read(and the most longest)

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are the main characters of this book. They are also sisters. When Sabrina and Daphne were younger, there parents disappeared. Yes, very sad! So, they were sent to the orphanage until about two months later, when a woman came to pick them up. She took them to some of the most unkind people, until one day a woman came who claimed to be their Grandma Grimm. But when Sabrina was younger, her father had told her that her grandmother had died before she was born.

The pictures in this book are very realistic! I hope you can make the time to read this book. I plan to read the second one.

-G-


So, there you have my daughter's review! [and like I already mentioned, she has already read all of the other books in the series, that are currently available] She intentionally did not write any of the "plot" as she did not want to give anything away :-)

I just wanted to also mention that the book includes an excellent reader's guide to the world of fairy tales in general - giving the reader a brief glimpse at the works of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Andrew Lang, L. Frank Baum, etc. 

Also, the author Michael Buckley encourages and inspires others to create their own stories, which is awesome - especially since my daughter has already written two stories of her own [she may just grow up to be an author!]

Jason

2 comments:

Wings1295 said...

Love the review, and I love your daughter's review! How awesome that she has written two stories of her own!

Heck, she is an author already, just for that. She may not be a published author, but who cares? Kudos to her for just doing it. Many, MANY people just leave it as a dream and nothing more. She's way ahead of the pack, already!

:)

thebonebreaker said...

Perfectly stated Wings! You are absolutely correct!

Thank you for that - my daughter is grinning from ear to ear right now! :-)

J