TN #10 - The Grimm Legacy

The modern idea of a fairy tale always seems to end with "and they lived happily ever after."  They give hope and sometimes false ideas of what we should expect when we grow up.  Don't get me wrong, I love fairy tales.  I grew up watching every story that the big giant company run by a mouse has ever produced in animated format (and live format).  As much as I loved those, I enjoyed when some other company would take the story in a different direction.  Make it more dark.  At the time I though that they were playing with the real story for dramatic effect.  But as I grew older I learned about something called The Brothers Grimm.

http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_05_img0317.jpg

Who are these brothers?  Their once was two brothers (ok, I am stealing this from National Geographic to give you a synopsis) named Will and Jake Grimm, who set out to find and share folktales from Germany during the early 1800s.  They shared their findings with their audiences who found them entertaining.  These stories became the stories of The Brothers Grimm.  Many of these stories have been changed over the years to take out some or most of the Grimm aspects of the story.  Translation:  make them happy stories.

So, since these stories are part of a collection of fairy tales found all over Europe, I'm sure someone would say that there must be some kind of basis in the truth for some of these stories.  So with that idea, our author, Polly Shulman brings the Grimm Stories to modern day times.

So what if these stories all had some basis in truth?  What if the magical items all really existed?  Would they be safe in the world or would they be safer locked up in a museum of some sort?  In The Grimm Legacy the magically items found in the different Grimm stories have all been brought together for safe keeping.  People can check these items out, for a price.  But something is happening to the items, they seem to be losing their magic powers.  So it is up to a few fearless pages from the New York Circulating Material Repository to track down who is stealing the magic before it is too late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XIepgXWeE0

Nice book, takes a little to get into it, so don't give up because once the story gets going, it can be quite a ride.  Just a notice for my boys, there is a little bit of romance in the storyline, but I don't think enough to be distracting.  So one of you is going to have to give me your input on this issue.  Otherwise, share your thoughts on the story.  As always, I am looking forward to what you think.

By the way, for my next book I will be giving my little green post-it a break.  I was able to secure a digital copy of Soccerland on sale so I will be able to talk about that next time.  

"Brothers Grimm: Fairy Tales, History, Facts, and More." Brothers Grimm: Fairy Tales, History, Facts, and More. National Geographic Society, 1999. Web. 19 June 2012. <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html>.

"Grimm Brothers Biography." Germany Insider Facts. Rita Amend, 2010. Web. 19 June 2012. <http://www.germany-insider-facts.com/grimm-brothers.html>.

PenguinYoungReaders. "The Grimm Legacy Book Trailer Video." YouTube. YouTube, 24 May 2010. Web. 19 June 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XIepgXWeE0>.

"Polly Shulman." Polly Shulman. N.p., 2010. Web. 19 June 2012. <http://www.pollyshulman.com/>.

Shulman, Polly. The Grimm Legacy. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2010. Print.

"Grimm Brothers Picture." Notable Biographies. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2012. <http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_05_img0317.jpg>.