The book A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz tells the story of how Hansel and Gretel (two storybook characters) venture through 8 other fairytales, trying to find a new pair of parents. The reason they are doing this is that they found out that their father had cut off their heads (don’t worry, they were put back on) to save an old family friend. They then run away confident that they will find “new” parents who will actually love them. Hansel and Gretel pass witches who try to bake them, warlocks who will chop them up and make stew out of them, and dragons who will try to kill everyone.
A very old friend and butler of the king (and a lot of the kings before him) was actually the start of all of this. His name is Faithful Johannes, and he turned to stone while trying to protect the king from dying. A while later, after the king and queen had children, the statue of Faithful Johannes speaks to the king. He tells him that if the king cuts off his children’s heads, takes the blood, and wipes it on his statue, then he will come back to life. After thinking, the king says, “Faithful Johannes, for all this time you have under-stood me, and my father, and my father’s father, and so on. So now I will under-stand you.”
After the king does all of this, Faithful Johannes tells the king that he is happy, but children are the most important gift of all. Faithful Johannes then uses magic to put the kids’ heads back together, and after Hansel and Gretel overhears things about it, their journey begins.
I love this book because it has all of the classic fairytales you loved as a kid, but with bloody, gory twists (which are probably more your taste now). It is actually one of the best books I have ever read, with its brave and noble characters, its great change in setting by the chapter (which flows in perfectly with what is happening in the story), and the plot in general. I would recommend this book to anyone, except for maybe younger readers who may not be able to stomach some of the blood and gore!
Adam Gidwitz was born in San Francisco in 1982, but moved to Baltimore when he was two and a half. He grew up there and then went to college in New York City. He chose English as his major because “You couldn’t beat the homework in English. Read this book! How about this one? You’ll love this book!” Adam spent his third year of college in England. He only had to go to class for an hour at a time, twice a week. That’s two hours a week out of 168. He had 166 hours (or 98.8% of the time) to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t know it then, but he realized that it was that year he knew he could be a writer.
After graduating, Adam went back to New York and took a job in a second grade classroom in Brooklyn reading books and telling stories. He eventually taught first, second, fifth, and high school in Brooklyn, and now he is writing books (obviously). I hope you like his book as much as I do!