A Tale Dark and Grimm

In preparation for a visit from Adam Gidwitz on June 12, I'm trying to get 4th and 5th graders reading his books.

This morning, Evan stopped in the library on his way from the bus to his classroom. He finished A Tale, Dark & Grimm over our long weekend and wanted to blog about it immediately:


"One word that describes this book, bloody.  I never read anything like this.  It was creepy and I really liked it. It was about Hansel and Gretel but doing all different things. Like different than the typical story we know.  I don't really like the typical story so I'm really glad that Adam changed it.  My favorite characters were the three ravens because they were all sarcastic like me. Hansel and Gretel were brave through the whole thing, too.  Rather than sit in a corner and cry their eyes out.

"My favorite scene is hard because I have a lot of favorite scenes.  I can picture when Hansel ran from the Devil.  I can picture the red wall and the red Devil and the steam coming out from above his head. I can imagine the mad devil and I can see him in the little boat with the oars and trying to get out because he can't even though he said he could.  This book was mostly scary but it was funny, too.

"The best thing about this book are the pages where Adam talked. He's telling it from his perspective that he made up and he's also narrating it.  I think that's hard to do because it's hard to make up your own story and the narrated part.  Right at the beginning he writes, "And of course, the most blood." And there was a lot of blood.

"I think everyone should read this book except children in second grade and younger because they will probably cry.  But everyone else should read it. This is SUCH a good book. I loved it!"

PS-I'm not sure I would give this to a second grader lol.  Several years ago, I gave it to a fifth grader and she returned it the next day because it gave her nightmares. Oops.