The Fairy Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, Book 1) Publisher: Amulet

The first entry in an on-going middle-grade fantasy series, The Fairy-Tale Detectives follows the story of Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, who, after a year and a half in and out of various foster homes, find themselves deposited with the grandmother they had no idea existed. Sabrina, the elder at almost

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twelve, is naturally distrustful - a characteristic much amplified by more than a year's experience with abusive and/or neglectful adults - and determined to protect the more innocent Daphne. She wants none of this strange Grandma Relda, with her colorful food, mysterious preoccupation with fairy-tale creatures, and somewhat foreboding companion, Mr. Canis; and has no interest in staying in Ferryport Landing, the small forest-enclosed town, on the banks of the Hudson River, to which she and Daphne have come. But when all her preconceived notions - her conviction that Relda Grimm is a fraud and a lunatic, her belief that those stories known as "fairy-tales" are fiction - are utterly destroyed by witnessing a two-hundred-foot-tall giant kidnap Grandma Relda and Mr. Canis, Sabrina swings into action, Daphne at her side. She may have lost one family, when her parents disappeared, but Sabrina Grimm is not the girl to lose a second, now that she's finally found it...

I was curious to see how I would like this first entry in Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series, as so many of my online friends seem either to dislike it, or, at best, to be ambivalent about it. Although rather strict, in my ideas about what makes a desirable folk or fairy-tale retelling - I prefer faithfulness to the original - I am far more tolerant of works of fantasy fiction that are inspired by various folk traditions, as they are generally not presented as retellings of the original stories themselves. In fact, the overlap between folklore and fantasy is a particular area of interest for me, and something I would like to research. Given that this is so, it's probably not that surprising that I enjoyed The Fairy-Tale Detectives more than some of my fellow reviewers. I liked the idea of it, and I enjoyed many of the details of the story: that Grandma Relda was so colorful, that Mr. Canis (erstwhile Big Bad Wolf) was a reformed character, that Prince Charming was a not-so-charming opportunist, out for number one. I appreciated the fact that the Grimms, and the "Everafter" community that they helped to establish, were relocated to the Hudson Valley, as this seems to offer an oblique commentary on the immigration of so many Germans to this continent, and the safe-haven (however imperfect) it supplied to them. Finally, I really appreciated Sabrina's character, and didn't find her distrust of adults at all unbelievable. Yes, she was rather obnoxious at first, but I would have been far more skeptical and displeased, if she had simply accepted the situation in Ferryport Landing, and learned to trust again, all in an instant. These things take time, and I think Buckley made the right decision, in allowing her distrust to play itself out naturally, only overcome by the evidence of her own senses.

All that said, this wasn't a book without flaw, and I did find myself a little impatient with the way Buckley conflated any number of works of fantasy and fairy-tale. If Ferryport Landing was established to house those creatures and beings that the Brothers Grimm - ancestors of our Sabrina and Daphne - encountered through their stories, then the cast of characters should have been limited to the Grimms' fairy-tales. Or, if it was necessary to bring in the work of other fairy-tale authors (Andersen, Perrault) and modern fantasists (Baum, Carroll), then some sort of explanation should have been offered. Perhaps, once established, the town (originally "Fairyport Landing") began to attract other creatures? I also felt that the informative afterword, in the edition I read, was at times misleading, and at times factually inaccurate. Without ever stating this explicitly, Buckley made it seem as if the Brothers Grimm were the first to record fairy-tales, when any reader with even a cursory knowledge of the subject knows that they were preceded by the French salon movement, which was itself inspired by earlier Italian traditions, in the same vein. I was also very frustrated (yet again!), to see the factually incorrect statement that the Chinese variant of Cinderella was the first to be recorded, as the story of the Greek slave girl Rhodopis (see: The Egyptian Cinderella) predates it by more than a millennium.

Leaving these issues aside - and they seem to be questions of a more scholarly, rather than literary nature - I did enjoy The Fairy-Tale Detectives enough to want to read subsequent entries in the series. I'm curious to see how Puck's inclusion in the Grimm household will work out, whether Sabrina's trust issues continue, and how the mysterious Red Hand society - could this be a reference to the "Red Hand" of Irish mythology? - comes into all of it. It looks like I will have to track down a copy of The Unusual Suspects...

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The story is certainly filled with fun and a very entertaining read. Nearly every fairy tale or story I've read as a kid was featured in this book. I guess you could say, it was like reading something that came out of Shrek, sans the main cast. The concept is certainly very interesting and adding

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in the idea of making the Grimm family a family of detectives out to solve mysteries caused by the Everafters (characters and creatures from the fairy tales) makes the story all the more fun to read. There were a few parts here and there that made me laugh out loud (the momma bear part was really good).

I have to admit I didn't like Sabrina at first. Her skepticism got annoying and for someone who's very young (around 11 years of age) she doesn't act like it. She's certainly very mature - however given that they have jumped through a dozen or so foster homes, perhaps that's what made her grow up so fast. However, I still think she's a little too skeptical for her own good. All characters though were well done and each had something I liked. Which makes the book even much more enjoyable to read.

The ending of the book is well done, albeit, a little too quick in finishing off the main story arc but naturally it leaves a lot more to do with the Grimm family and leaves me with a lot of questions. I am definitely going to get into this series. It's a quick read and there aren't any lulls or anything that takes you away from the main plot.

Overall it's certainly worth a look into if you want something light and easy to read. It's filled with adventure and will keep you entertained, and hopefully getting you to pursue the series a little more further.

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Two orphaned girls are adopted by a kooky old lady claiming to be their long-lost grandmother, and find themselves entrenched in a small town full of Everafters--the characters from what they thought were only fairy tales and myths. Michael Buckley introduces young readers to a new and exciting

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world where a child's expectations of the golden fantastic is drossy and shadowed by corruption, political repression, and revenge. Mixing a pessimistic realism with an equally pessimistic fantasy realm, Buckley takes on a host of complex concepts and attempts to weave them into a cohesive story. Well, consistent it isn't, and convenient it might be, but compelling it sure is. Buckley's greatest strength is in developing a fully round protagonist in Sabrina Grimm, a rough-and-tumble, smart-as-a-whip, jaded-from-repeated-trauma almost-12-year-old. None of the supporting characters are nearly as developed, and the story suffers for it. But most of the novel takes place with Sabrina's perspective in the fore, so readers will follow her emotions and calculations as quickly as Buckley plunges one into them. Most accessible to readers at 5th grade and above level.

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I think this is a really good book for kids, mommys and dads. I like how they will soon find their parents maybe in the next book. My favorite part was at the end when Puck said, "I'm moving in" and handed in all his junk to Sabrina.

cute story

Cute idea, done fairly well. Not a classic, but not a bad read for a children's book either.

Two orphans are adopted by their strange grandmother, whose neighbors are even stranger. They learn that fairly tales were nonfiction, and in fact written by their ancestors, who lived among the immortal

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beings who populate these stories. Now that they have moved in with their grandmother, the girls must learn how to deal with an angry giant, the horribly self-centered Prince Charming, the mischievous fairy Puck, and other assorted characters.

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After the mysterious disappearance of their parents, 11-year-old Sabrina Grimm and her 7-year-old sister, Daphne, are sent to a succession of foster homes. Their luck seems to change when they are sent to live with someone claiming to be their grandmother, but Sabrina is suspicious since her father

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had led her to believe her grandparents were all dead. She is further suspicious when her grandmother tells her that they are related to the Brothers Grimm of fairy tale fame. Not only that, but she tells them that fairy tales are not make believe, but history books and the characters are real and living right there in town. Naturally, Sabrina doesn't believe a word of it, until she sees with her own eyes that fairy tales can come true.

This was a truly delightful fantasy. Michael Buckley deftly weaves many fairy tales into the book from the Three Little Pigs to the Magic Mirror on the Wall to the Wizard of Oz. He's taken one of the standard fairy tale characters, Prince Charming, and turned him into a vain, yet very funny character. Buckley has a nice touch with words that will help adults enjoy this book as well as children. His touch is subtle, yet humorous, as when he describes parking valets as "hulking attendants with green skin and oversized muscles". Sabrina and Daphne are delightful, resourceful and brave. Buckley's take on the various fairy tale characters and their personalities is quite interesting and readers will never look at fairy tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk in quite the same way after reading this book.

Readers young and old will love this book.

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Two girls, Daphne and Sabrina Grimm, sisters, 5 and 10, have lived a normal life...until their parents dissapear without a trace. After being taken into an orphange, having no other family known to them, they are bounced from one foster home to another by their horrible social worker, Ms. Minerva

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Smirt.
Soon, they get to the point where there ARE no more foster homes to take them in, so for a while Savrina and Daphne are sure they have a permenant home again - until a woman claiming to be a grandmother that the girl's parents had claimed was dead applies for custody.
The girls are told by their "grandmother" that the town they live in is really home to Everafters, as fairy tale creatures prefer to be called, and that their family line is made up of the desendents of the famous Brothers Grimm, really reporters, not fiction writers, and that they were expected to train to someday be Fairy Tale Detectives, the girls are absolutely sure that the woman they'd been taken in by, Granny Relda, was crazy and absolutely NOT related to them.
Until, of course, Granny Relda is kidnapped by a giant.
As the girls discover that Ferryport Landing, their new town, is not what it seems, they make friends with their grandmother (not crazy after all), a boy she had taken in - Puck, the fairy from Shakespear, in all his 12-year-old-boy glory, Mr. Canis, alias The Big Bad Wolf, also living in the house, The three policemen making up the town's police force, Mr. Hamstead, Mr.Boarman and Mr. Swineheart, the elementary school teacher, Ms. White - or Snow, as her friends call her, and many more.

Unfortunately, it is up to Sabrina and Daphne to save her Grandmother and Mr. Canis, also kidnapped, and they have no idea where to start.

This is a fantastic book, well-written, entertaining, funny, and with a great plot. One of my favorites.

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I enjoyed this book and will encourage my older children (12 & 9) to read it. The story moves along at a brisk pase. I would have appreciated a little more development, but for younger readers I think it is appropriate. The characters are also a little shallow, but enough details are given that you

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can fill in the rest with imagination.

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The Sister's Grimm series is great. For people who like Twilight, Harry Potter and other fantasy books will fall in love and won't be able to put it down.

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been tossed around from one crazy foster home to the next and every time, Sabrina has helped her and her sister

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sneak out.One night Sabrina and Daphne's parents didn't come home and all the police officers could find was a blood red handprint on the dashboard of the parents car.So the next foster parent claimed she was the grandma of the sister's Grimm which was completely untrue since their grandma died according to their dad. She said Ferryport Landing was a place where all the Everafters (what the fairytale characters call them self) are trapped in this small town due to a magical spell that Wilhelm Grimm (the youngest of the brothers Grimm) asked Baba Yaga (a witch) to cast so that the Everafter community could not escape. The mayor is Prince Charming, Snow White is a teacher, Sleeping Beauty owns a coffee shop and so on.But of course that sounds crazy to the sisters this lady was the craziest out of all the foster parents.But the sister's found a way to believe her when their grandma get's kidnapped by a giant!

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I enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading the rest of the series. I like how the girls are related to the Brothers Grimm (their ancestors) and how your classic fairytales have been adapted to make it a new and yet classic read. I am a bit of a mystery sleuth kind of reader and this fit me

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perfectly. Again, I am looking forward to the rest of the books in this series!

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Unbelievable book. Magic, kids my age, fairy tale creatures, and surprises at every turn. From Puck's mischief to Sabrina's temper to Daphne's sweetness, the characters are realistic and relatable. Officially my favorite series.

EverAfters are the real people whose magical tales are really documentation of events that happened long ago. The title sisters's famous ancestors, the Brothers Grimm were some of the first to document these tales. William even arranged their passage to America, where they settled in Fairyport

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Landing. The orphaned and escape artist Sisters find this and much more when their latest in a long string of foster homes is to be with the grandma they heard was long dead.

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Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been passed around foster homes for the past year, since their parents disappeared. They have become quite the escape artists. When they are sent to live with a woman who claims to be their grandmother, Sabrina is suspicious to say the least. After all, her father had

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told them their grandmother was dead. When this strange old woman starts telling them that fairy tales are true, Sabrina fears the worst. The old lady is an imposter and she is crazy.

Both girls soon learn that everything they have been told is true and they are part of THE Grimm family who are the guardians of Ferryport Landing, a town where all the fairy tale creatures reside. When their grandmother is kidnapped by a giant, Sabrina and Daphne must decide who to trust to help them save her.

I really enjoyed this book. The girls are fun and likeable, even though Sabrina can be a bit much at times. The premise of the story is interesting and lays the groundwork for many more stories. Along with the traditional stories, children will be introduced to some of the more classic creatures such as Puck from Midsummer Night's Dream.

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I adore the Sisters Grimm. The Fairy Tale Detectives gives readers a glimpse into the 'real' stories behind some of history's most famous fabled characters. The story is clever, and the characters are endearing. Loved it!!

I have to admit I did pick up the book for the cover but was not disapointed when I read it! The characters were good and along with popular fairy tale characters, like snow white, the 3 little pigs, ect, there were characters from alice in wonderland and the jungle book(amongst others). This is

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one of those children's books that will be enjoyed by everyone.

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A very well done introduction to the Sisters Grimm series. The characters are rather dynamic and the fairy tale tie ins are inventive, if at times blatant. The mystery actually surprised me in the end, which is always a good sign. Looking forward to reading the next installment!

the first book in the series. this story is slow to start but once you hit book 3, you are severely addicted. The story starts with 2 girls who have been in foster care after being abandoned by their parents. Their grandmother comes forward for them but she is no ordinary grandmother. She is the

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descendant of the Grimm brothers. Wilhem Grimm brought all the fairy tale characters to one city and placed a charm on the city so that they could not escape.

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What a slam-bang start to an exciting (and Very kid-friendly) series

Samantha and Daphne think they are orphans until they are claimed by Grandmother Grimm. Turns out they are related to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the famous fairy tale collectors, and are needed to help take care of some fairy tale problems. Many years ago the magical creatures in fairy tales (called

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Everafters) were sent to one town, Ferryport, to live separately from humans. Now, one giant is running loose destroying the town. Samantha and Daphne help solve this problem and learn about their own family history!

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Sabrina and Daphne find out they are Grimms, as in the fairy tale Grimms, who have the mission of helping to keep the Everafters in check. When their grandma and Mr. Canis (aka the big bad wolf) are kidnapped by a giant on the loose, they take on the case and try to rescue their family. Lots of fun

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to see the different fairly tale characters and to see the spunky sisters learn to embrace their newly found identities.

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As we all know perfectly well, real life simply isn't a fairy tale. Not everyone gets a happy ending. But what if we abandon this mindset and believe they are as true as they come? What if everything we ever learned about The Three Little Pigs, Snow White, Cinderella, etc. were true? Crazy, huh?

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That's what Sabrina Grimm initially thought when her so-called grandmother told her that fairy tales are true-to-life historical accounts and that their family is related to the famous Grimm brothers. After all, Sabrina doesn't have a reason to believe her grandmother. She and her sister Daphne were deemed orphans after their parents mysteriously disappeared, and her father had told her before that her grandmother was dead. So when a woman claiming to be their grandmother adopts the siblings, it's no wonder that Sabrina is an extreme skeptic. It's not until Sabrina encountered a real giant that she began to believe her seemingly lunatic grandmother. Upon this realization, Sabrina and Daphne must oblige with their fate as the Grimm sisters and rescue the town.

Like most normal kids, I grew up reading fairy tales; however, I never outgrew them. I always love books with a new remix on classic fairy tales, and this novel did not disappoint. The blend of mystery within fairy tale makes the story so much more intriguing. Characters I know and love each have a different side to them, making them all the more complicated and realistic. Buckley cleverly and creatively introduces new characters (like the Grimm sisters) while adding to the already known fairy tale characters and creatures. Sabrina makes an exceptional protagonist. She's only twelve years old, but she's already taking care of her sister so well. She's smart and cunning; she always knows how to perfectly run away from the crazy foster homes she's placed in. One of her most distinctive qualities – as well as my favorite quality about her – is that she's extremely skeptical in the beginning. This made a lot of room for humor as she's never afraid to speak her mind. There aren't many books that can have me laughing out loud, but The Fairy-Tale Detectives is definitely one of them.

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This first book in the "Sisters Grimm" series reads like one part Lemony Snicket, two parts "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and a healthy dose of just about every other children's fantasy written in the last decade. Once again, we encounter would-be orphans who discover a here-to-fore hidden family

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history of magical obligation. Once again there is a quest -- this time with a miniature Snicket-style "whodunit" tossed in -- and once again... surprise... our heroes are miraculously successful -- if not totally victorious -- discover that they aren't quite as family- and friend-less as previously supposed, and learn a little something about themselves in the process. Woohoo.

To be fair, though this is pretty formulaic at its roots (as, frankly, many perfectly decent books are), there are some important twists. First, of course, there's the fact that our heroes are actually heroines (two young girls and one disorganized but feisty granny), which is refreshing. Second, the descriptive style, while aimed at the young and therefore occasionally overly didactic, has a certain detective-style realism (the 12-year-old is realistically annoying at moments, the 7-year old has a good emotional and behavioral range, the house is sufficiently but not overly disordered, and most of the characters are dynamic and occasionally surprising) that makes reading it a pleasant experience. Also, the fairy tale characters -- who, we discover, have much more to them than we the fairy-tale inundated reading public might expect -- are real characters, rather than stereo- or archetypes, with multiple levels of personality and motivation.

So, overall, though this somewhat cinematic first installment might be dreaming of Snicket-like success, it does seem to hold its own. If you like this style of books (and especially for those who found Snicket too depressing and Spiderwick too quick), this is definitely worth a read. Of course, I reserve final judgment until after I've read further into the series. Stay tuned...

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I thought this was a quick and enjoyable read. Sabrina is pretty annoying as a main character, but the other characters do their best to make up for her, I believe. I love reading new twists on favorite characters and seeing how favorite fairy tale characters cope with the real world is very

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interesting and fun for me. I think Charming is a great character...though I wonder: are there any stories where Charming in the real world is not some sleazeball jerk? I'm very interested to see where the rest of the series goes.

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