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A Tale Dark and Grimm
By Adam Gidwitz
Dutton (a division of Penguin)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-525-42334-8
Ages 9-12
On shelves November 11, 2010

Didn’t want to read this. Nope. Not a jot. Three reasons for that. First off, the title. I’ve said it about twenty times since reading it and every time I can’t quite get it right (derivations have included “Something Dark and Grimm”, “A Grimm Tale”, and “Something Grimm”). Second, the jacket of the hardcover edition of this book isn’t particularly new. Silhouettes against a blue background. Ho hum. Third, I couldn’t believe that I was dealing with yet ANOTHER middle grade novel adapting fairy tales in new ways. After a while the The Sisters Grimm / The Grimm Legacy titles out there begin to meld together. From The Goose Girl to Into the Wild to Sisters Red I sometimes feel as if I am a little tired of fairy tales. I guess it takes a book like A Tale Dark and Grimm to wake me out of this funk. To my surprise, Gidwitz’s debut is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before. I’ve never seen a book meld the snarky narrator of something like a Lemony Snicket title so seamlessly with the original tone and telling of the original Grimm fairy tales. And not the sweet tales either. This is a book that isn’t afraid to get to the root of a good story. The fact that it unearths some of the more frightening ones along the way just happens to be a bonus.

We all know some of the better known Grimm fairy tales out there like “Rapunzel” or “Cinderella”. Heck, we probably even know some of their original story elements (chopping of heels and toes, getting blinded by thorns, etc.). The Grimm tales were just that. Grim. Now imagine finding yourself living them. Prince Hansel and Princess Gretel are born in one lesser known Grimm fairy tales, “Faithful Johannes” and when they discover that their mom and dad are potentially unhinged they set off to make their way in the world and find some decent parents. In doing so they wander through a series of little known tales like “The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs” and “The Seven Ravens”. Unfortunately, while doing so they have a tendency to lose digits, lose their humanity, lose their lives (almost), and find that sometimes the fastest way to end your travels to go back to where you started.

There are times in a children’s librarian’s life when it is very useful to own the third edition of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm as translated by Jack Zipes (who, by the way, blurbed this book). You just never know when you might need such a book. In this particular case I

Thresholds
By Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Viking (an imprint of Penguin)
$15.99
ISBN: 978-0-670-06319-2
Ages 9-12
On shelves August 5th.

I like to characterize trends with great all-encompassing, massive statements that fail to take into account exceptions to the rule. For example, after reading Thresholds by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, my instinct is to throw my hands wide and pronounce to the world, “2010 is the year of young adult authors writing for children and finding that in doing so they acquire a whole new audience and fanbase.” I root this statement in only one other 2010 book (One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia) but one is good enough for me. Nina Kiriki Hoffman has at least twelve YA books under her belt, but until now she has shied away from middle grade fare. With Thresholds she changes her game, offering a fantasy (or is it science fiction?) that taps into the dual early adolescent desires of bonding with something friendly and powerful and befriending the outcasts that prove cooler than everybody else.

You should probably know three things about Maya right from the outset. First off, her best friend Stephanie recently died and Maya’s family has moved so as to help their daughter cope. Second, Stephanie has found herself living next to a house where the denizens come and go in odd fashions, play strange instruments, and speak in tongues she doesn’t always understand. Third, there was a fairy in her room recently. It happened one night when Stephanie probably should have been asleep. No one would think much of it either, were it not for the fact that because of the strange fairy’s scent an odd boy decides that he can trust Maya. Next thing she knows she has a strange magical egg embedded under the skin of her wrist, and her neighbors are the only ones who can help her. Now Maya, like it or not, has gotten caught up in their world. The only question now is what’s in that egg and what will happen when it decides to hatch?

The blurb for this book that caught my eye is “Ingrid Law’s Savvy as seen through the eyes of a young Ray Bradbury.” I love that they had to put that “a young” in there. Old Ray Bradbury would be a whole different ballgame, of course. Mind you, it’s an interesting statement above and beyond the age designation of one of the nation’s greatest science fiction writers. First off, the blurb pairs two different genres together. Savvy is a Newbery Honor winning fantasy about a girl who receives a special power (like the rest of her family) at the age of thirteen. Ray Bradbury, on the other hand, is a master of science fiction. Put the two together and you would expect to find a book that appeals to both sci-fi and fantasy fans equally. No mean task. To my mind, I suppose that Thresholds could be characterized as sci-fi. Everything has a logical dimension. Just the same, as a general rule, when you open your first chapter with a girl discovering a fairy, folks are going to label you fantasy whether or not there’s a scientific practicality to that fairy being there.

The real reason I think they decided to compare this book