It took us a long time to read this book. Since we hadn't finished by the time it was due back at the library, we had to return it before we finished as there were holds on it. So we put it on hold again ourselves and promised to finish it as soon as we could.

It was a great book, filled with fantastic and action-filled stories that were gruesome, but exciting. I have read some about children's ability to detach the written story from reality and be relatively unaffected by gore (more so than wi More...

I loved, loved, loved this book! This is the kind of book that I wish I could find more of. I think it was a wonderful fix of humor, horror, suspense, angst, and a great coming of age story. I didn't think that I would appreciate a story with Hansel and Gretel thrown into other fairy tales, nor could their story sustain a full-length novel. I was wrong on both counts. Hansel and Gretel became very dear to my hearts. They started out as little children who were doing what little children did. Liv More...

I've always liked an analogy for reading I once heard from an English teacher: sometimes your relationship with a book can be just like relationships with people. There are people you'll be instantly drawn to because they have a particular charisma or chemistry for you, yet with time you might realize they lack the depth and quality to be a good relationship. And there are people who don't immediately impress you or draw you in, but the more time you spend getting to know them the more they grow More...

I studied fairy tales a bit in college -- one of my favorite subjects, in fact -- so the premise of this book intrigued me. Imagine if all those children in Grimm stories, the ones who pop up when a poor couple bemoans that they have no children, or who get entrapped by a creepy devil man, or who get killed by their parents, are actually the same two children. They're Hansel and Gretel. And each story, generally culled from the Grimms' work, takes them on a journey of self-discovery and independ More...

I just finished the book and the last part was one of my favorite parts because the boy and he's mom goes home and after they get in the house they check in there cameras and there was a figure that was all black and with dirt around it so they ran out of the house to their fa,moly and then when they turned back there was a mothership on top of their house... Nd that was all ill have to read the next chapter.














I am at the last chapter of the book and this book is relating to me because one time my More...

Definitely not for the faint of heart. Well written and helps me understand why the fairy tales lasted so long and why they were told. I listened to the audiobook and I really liked the acting of the reader: Johnny Heller. At the beginning of the book/fairytales, the characters make foolish choices and allow things to happen to themselves not thinking of the consequences or allow the consequences to fall on others.

I really like that at the book's darkest, you still have the author/narrator with More...

4/13 Re-read for a book group and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

Not for the faint of heart! This MG/YA novel is one of the most violent and bloody I have read. That being said... I really enjoyed it. It's a retelling of Grimm's fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. However, being woefully unfamiliar with the original Grimm, I am not certain how many literary licenses were taken with the story. I found this story, while dark and violent, to actually be kind of fun. Hansel and Gretel mo More...

I know it's a little early to call it, but this might be my favorite book of the year. It had a lot going against it. Mainly, that title, that cover...really? Fairy tale mash-ups and silhouette cover art are so last year! But then my nine year old read this and gushed and gushed over it like she hasn't done before. I promised her I would read it ASAP.

I'll admit that at first I was a little scandalized when I discovered how bloody and violent this was, but ultimately I wasn't surprised or truly More...

I read the advance reading copy of this book, and absolutely LOVED IT! I want to recommend it to anyone that works with young students, particularly those that are reluctant readers. I agree with my boss, who when she handed it to me, said "Can't you just see all the fifth grade boys drooling over this book?" It is wonderfully bloody and fun--but there is also a level of complexity that the author loves to point out in his to-the-side narration, but never explicitly state, such as: "Why? I've al More...

I gave this book four stars because it was cool it was the most bloody grusome horrid horrific scary disgusting fairytale that I have read in my entire life. also it was interesting how two children could go through so much in their life. I felt bad for hansel and gretel because all of those periliss journeys made them realize they had every single little thing they could ever want right were the started is the best place. I think you wold like this book if you like fairytale, mystery, or horror More...

It's a great book. Gidwitz took what was coolest about the Grimm tales (the gore, the impossibility) and managed to make a compelling, cohesive novel out of it. Perhaps more remarkably, he managed to create two realistic people out of the characters of Hansel and Gretel, children who actually grow and learn and change. No, wait, maybe I'm most impressed by how he addresses all the bad parents of the tales. But then there's the humor of the narrator. It's pretty nearly perfect.

***
07/31/2012

Just w More...

A Tale Dark and Grimm is a fantasy with many fairy tales woven in. Adam Gidwitz's new book is In A Glass Grimmly, so I wanted to reread this one before I read that. I love the narrator's voice. There are little asides in bold font, where Gidwitz usually warns the reader to send the little children out of the room because there are bloody bits coming up. They're really funny. But the book isn't actually that bloody. I mean, there are some graphic descriptions, but it's not as gruesome as you migh More...

A delightful andthoroughlyentertaining tale, A Tale Dark & Grimmtakes elements from the original Brothers Grimm book and adds a new spin. The book is a collection of bloody yet charming stories that follow the adventures of Hansel and Gretel. Yes, thatHansel and Gretel. The ones that pushed a witch into the oven. That story isn't where tale ends, or even begins, though.

The books opens before their birth. The book talks about how their parents met and how they avertedtragedy. After those two More...

WOW! This book was amazing! I am in awe of how creative it was! I mean like seriously...author Adam Gidwitz is just genius in how he put this story together in such a way that delights adults and children alike. In today's world, it seems really challenging to find fairy-tale stories that aren't just simply rewritten. Adam Gidwitz has certainly done an excellent job recreating some of the Grimm brothers' most popular stories while still staying true to the original version. (view spoiler)[(Yes, the cover is s (hide spoiler)] More...

I wanted to like this book – honestly, I did! The premise is intriguing, and I love fairy tales. Plus it garnered so many glowing reviews that I kept cutting it a bit more slack than I otherwise would have done.

But I found the book to be both dull and irritating. What truly turned me off to this book was the thinness of the plot and the intrusiveness of the narrator. As others have noted, Lemony Snicket this is not -- not even Book 13 Lemony Snicket!

I loved the original tales, so the violence wa More...

Hansel dan Gretel? Yang saya tahu, Hansel dan Gretel itu salah satu dongeng yang indah yang pernah saya baca waktu kecil. Bagaimana tidak? Anak-anak seperti apa yang tidak tertarik dengan rumah dari permen dan kue? Namun buku ini menceritakan kisah lain dari Hansel dan Gretel. Atau kisah yang sebenarnya? Sebab, awalnya Hansel dan Gretel adalah kisah yang kelam. Hingga diceritakan turun temurun dan berubah menjadi dongeng yang manis karena diubah oleh orang-orang yang menuturkannya.
Sebenarnya, b More...

I can't remember where I heard of this book (it may be from Pages Unbound, I find a lot of stuff about fairytales there), but it has the words "retold fairytales" and that's enough for me. It's centered around Hansel and Gretel, but moves through a lot of fairytales.

Confused yet? Well, the plot (which is really just a bunch of loosely connected stories) follow Princess Gretel and Prince Hansel, as they run away from home. Along the way, they go through things that no child should ever go through More...

I loved this book so much that I did something I rarely do. When I got to the end, I flipped it over and started right in again. I thought I might be able to pick out some of my favorite lines. I found out that my favorite lines were more like favorite paragraphs, or whole pages (for example, the snappy dialogue of the three ravens), or the way lines and themes recur from the beginning to the end. The book is a retelling of Grimm's fairy tales, which the knowing already know are dark and bloody, More...

Hansel and Gretel are twins born to the king and queen. Hansel and Gretel believe their parents are HORRIBLE parents after they decapitate the twins in order to revive their faithful servant Johannes. So, they run away. They meet a child-eating old lady, murderers, a talking tree, dragons, the devil, and a lot of more evil and gruesome people along the way. In this book even the sun and moon are evil. They travel through different, more obscure fairy tales with themselves as the main characters, More...

Who said fairy tales are boring? Adam Gidwitz gives us the chance to believe in magic again, in magic... and in blood. As the prologue says, this is not a book to be read to children in spite of being a re-make of the famous Brothers Grimm's tale. Yes, truly its main characters aren't others than Hansel and Gretel, and they live in a Kingdom called Grimm (an extremely original name, do you?), and it appear all kind of magical creatures such as witches, wizards, werewolves (OMG double vee everywh More...

This book definitely takes a creative spin of classic brothers grimm tales. I think that putting hansel and gretel as the main characters in all of these classical stories is definitely a creative twist. One problem I had with the book though was that I thought the narrator was very annoying and I did not like the way he spoke. I think the way he was used to link all of the stories together was creative but that he could have been utilized better. Another think I though was interesting about the More...

This was a fun read. I've been looking for some new middle level fairy tale retellings to use in my YA lit class and happened to stumble upon this one at a school book fair. Here's the opening: "Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome...". The narrator then goes on to make a case for the greatness of Grimm's fairy tales and retells a number of them turning them all into one connected narrative about Hansel and Gretel.

Throughout each of the stories, the narrator regularly interjects his/her (? More...

Exciting, playful, and interesting to the max! I absolutely loved this book of dark Grimm stories and fairytales. Gidwitz's gruesome, but playful twists on the tales add the most exciting turn of events and definitely make this book a page-turner, even for me as an adult! I was hooked as soon as I read the very first page. This book does contain some graphic details, such as small children's head being chopped off with a sword and them playing covered in blood. The book follows the tale of Hanse More...

Is it possible to rate a book one star and a five star? I'm torn between the two. I was drawn to this book because of the fantastic reviews. Immediately upon reading the beginning I loved the narrator's snarky, sarcastic voice. I could see so many fourth and fifth grade boys loving this book. Unfortunately, the bloody violence was more than a bit too much for me. I think I would be crucified if I put this book in my classroom library. For example, one passage reads...

"Then, my dear, you have bef More...

This book is a twist on the classic fairy tales. It involves everything from Hansel and Gretel to a big bad dragon. It starts out with a king, who captures his wife and his noble servent. Many curses are set upon the king and queen and the servent does everything he can to save their life. The king and queen have two children named Hansel and Gretel. The king performs and awful act on Hansel and Gretel and they decide to leave the kingdom of Grimm and run away. On their journey they try their ha More...

The book, The Tale Dark and Grimm takes you on a journey that you never knew Hansel and Gretel went on. The story starts with the reader learning a bit of background on the children’s family life, and then how the kids end up eating the sugary house of the witch. Oh, but it doesn't stop there, that’s just the beginning. They keep traveling looking for the perfect grown-ups to take them in and care for them, but many of the people they run into are no good. A lot of horrible and gory things happe More...

I thoroughly enjoyed this mash-up of Grimm's fairy tales especially because Gidwitz doesn't go the Disney route and cutesy everything up. He doesn't give the stories the full-on Grimm gore but he doesn't shy away from providing enough to satisfy the late elementary grades that is his audience. School Library Journal puts this book at Grades 3 and up while Publisher Weekly suggests 10 years and up (which is 5th grade). Personally, I'd lean toward fifth because of the death and dismemberment but s More...

Review via Cracking the Cover

Once upon a time …

That’s how all the great fairy tales begin.

Once upon a time there was a brother and sister who became lost in the forest. After awhile of wandering the two come across a home made from sweets.

Having not eaten all day, they sate their hunger by munching on the home. But they are discovered by the home’s owner — a witch in disguise.

The woman takes them in and fattens them up. But she has a devious motive, planning to cook the siblings for her dinner. More...