Review by New York Times Review
IS there anything better than a smart retelling of a fairy tale - more rewarding than the way the familiar is juxtaposed with the unexpected, only adding to the story's power? A fairy tale retold well is always good for that joyful shiver of transgression. "Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses," by Ron Koertge, is a collection of familiar fairy tales, retold in blank verse with a bent toward the subversive. Beast laments his lost fangs; Red Riding Hood compares being swallowed up inside a wolf to flying coach to Newark; Ella runs away from the ball, leaving the prince "groaning in his purple tights." The language here is modern, brutal and sharp as a carving knife. The cut-paper silhouette illustrations, rendered by Andrea Dezso in black and red, are haunting and perfect. Here, it is the emotional lives of Koertge's characters that provide the element of surprise. In "Bluebeard," Bluebeard's newest wife finds herself disturbingly excited by danger. She wonders, in those last moments before her brothers rush in, whether she truly wants to be saved. And Rapunzel's mother, in "Rapunzel: A Story in Five Parts," laments asking her husband to steal greens from the witch because she can't stop wanting everything she can't have. Koertge is a master at getting to subtle and uncomfortable emotional truths and relaying them in just a few precise lines. Adam Gidwitz's "In a Glass Grimmly," the follow-up to his much lauded debut, "A Tale Dark & Grimm," strings together a single narrative from various retellings. This time we're following Jack, Jill and a three-legged talking frog called Frog through a succession of reconceived fairy tales. Each story flows into the next with humor, cleverness and an oddly absorbing realism. Gidwitz addresses the reader directly throughout, discussing our imagined objections and warning us - sometimes slightly too late - when things are about to get particularly nasty. Gidwitz plays fast and loose, with reality a springboard from which to reapproach age-old stories. A frog loses a leg rather than turning into a prince when hurled against a wall; "Mary had a little lamb" is just a taunt thrown at Jack for following around a boy named Marie; and the "magic" bean Jack buys with his family cow is nothing but a scam. In addition to subverted expectations, though, there's still magic aplenty, including the goblins from Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market." The more knowledge of fairy tales and nursery rhymes the reader brings to the book, the more Gidwitz's clever manipulations can be appreciated - as when Jack and Jill fall down a hill without a single direct reference to the rhyme itself. FAIRY tales and ghost stories are connected by the oral tradition, and often by a moral component, although ghost stories are expected to produce a more pronounced shiver and warning. If fairy tales describe outwitting the wolf or the witch or the stepmother, then ghost stories are about punishment, with evildoers getting what they deserve. "On the Day I Died," by Candace Fleming, is not strictly a retelling, though its use of familiar ghoststory motifs means it contains some of the pleasures of one. The book is a collection held together by a framing tale. When a boy tries to return a mysterious stranger's shoes, he's led to a graveyard where nine teenage ghosts tell him nine stories. Each one is set in a different time period, from the mid-19th century to the present, and each ends in the death of the narrator. In one, a girl from an Italian neighborhood in the 1960s has told so many lies that when she discovers the new boy at her school is an arsonist, no one will believe her. In another, a girl is forced to stay with an aunt who turns out to be hoarding not just junk, but also the heads of mobsters she once knew. In all, the ghosts are compelled to tell their stories because they need a living person as their audience. Acclaimed for her biographies "Amelia Lost" and "The Lincolns," among other books, Fleming has a real facility with historical fiction, which is evident here. She is at her best when recounting the rise and fall of Al Capone or the Midway Plaisance of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Monkeys' paws, walking corpses and murderous mirrors remain less carefully drawn. That all the stories here are about a death forces certain similarities, but each one is made new by the particularities of its deceased narrator. It made me think about the ways all stories are retold, and how the most successful stories are those that manage to give us that jolt of surprise alongside a resonance of the familiar that echoes all the way down to our bones. Holly Black is the author of "The Spiderwick Chronicles."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 14, 2012]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This companion to Gidwitz's popular A Tale Dark & Grimm tells the tales of Jack and Jill via a series of reimagined adventures inspired by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Veteran narrator Jonny Heller dives headfirst into these colorful fantasies with vigor and unbridled enthusiasm, creating an endless array of colorful characters that will delight audiences both young and old. Heller's delivery is perfect for every character, and his excellent performance is on display right from the start. Listeners will find themselves hooked by the end of the first chapter, in part because Heller understands the role and responsibilities of the audio narrator-a role he clearly cherishes-and delivers a spirited performance. Ages 10-up. A Dutton hardcover. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-This companion (2012) to A Tale Dark & Grimm (2010, both Dutton) follows Jill and her cousin Jack as they go through many adventures that will sound rather familiar to anyone who has read fairy tales. There are new twists on princesses who kiss frogs, beanstalks that reach to the sky, giants who live at the top of those beanstalks, mermaids who fish for little girls, and bewitching goblin markets selling treacherous goods. Jill and Jack are resourceful and clever, at least most of the time. Johnny Heller is obviously having a blast reading this book and his joy is infectious. Gidwitz often "breaks the fourth wall" (connects directly with the audience) in his writing, and Heller cheerfully employs this technique to further draw listeners in, while simultaneously using it to reassure, since this world can be very grim, indeed. His gruff yet friendly narrative tone morphs easily into the piping voices of tiny salamanders; the smooth pitches of a snake oil salesman; the cultured tones of royalty; and the dulcet, tempting songs of mermaids. Gidwitz writes about the darker, truer side of familiar stories (e.g., the frog does not get kissed and turned into a prince, he gets thrown into a wall and badly injured). Heller portrays this darkness with aplomb, and also easily voices the magic and joy of fairy tale worlds. A delightful audiobook.-Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
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 cant 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. susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The author of A Tale Dark and Grimm (2010) starts over--sending young Jack and Jill on a fresh quest for self-knowledge through trials and incidents drawn (stolen, according to the author) from a diverse array of European folk and fairy tales. Foolishly pledging their lives on finding the long-lost Seeing Glass, cousins Jack and Jill, with a three-legged talking frog to serve as the now-requisite comical animal sidekick, set out from the kingdom of Mrchen. They climb a beanstalk, visit a goblin market and descend into a fire-belching salamander's lair (and then down its gullet). In a chamber of bones ("It gave new meaning to the term rib vaulting"), they turn the tables on a trio of tricksy child eaters. Injecting authorial warnings and commentary as he goes, Gidwitz ensures that each adventure involves at least severe embarrassment or, more commonly, sudden death, along with smacking great washes of gore, vomit and (where appropriate) stomach acid. Following hard tests of wit and courage, the two adventurers, successful in both ostensible and real quests, return to tell their tales to rapt children (including one named "Hans Christian," and another "Joseph," or "J.J.") and even, in the end, mend relations with their formerly self-absorbed parents. Not so much a set of retellings as a creative romp through traditional and tradition-based story-scapes, compulsively readable and just as read-out-loudable. (source note) (Fantasy. 11-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
