The Fairy-Tale Detectives

"This was a cute and clever book, and I enjoyed it. It was not as involved as Harry Potter (written for a younger crowd), but still very enjoyable."

"It's a fun series."

"these things feel more violent as audiobooks. baby Sabrina and Puck is cute."

"I read this as a kid when they first came out. It was a fun adventure. Twists, turns a little romance and just enough humor. "

"Before reading the first book of the Sisters Grimm series, The Fairy-Tale Detectives, I believed that reading it would be a bit like taking a trip down memory lane. Michael Buckley has attempted to create a whole new world in which characters from famous fairy tales now have new adventures. The problem that I had with this book is that instead of being interested in Buckley’s retelling, I just wanted to hear the same stories of the characters that I’ve known my whole life. I didn’t appreciate how my favorite childhood characters acted any way other than they do in the originals. However, I do understand that there is an audience for that, especially with adolescents who are challenging norms. In some regard, this does add a bit of dimension to the book. The good guys have hidden agendas and the bad guys are doing good things. I recommend starting a child off with the original stories before divulging into a retelling like this. The other major problem that I have with this book is that despite the title of the series, The Sisters Grimm, this story includes characters from other stories and I feel like that destroys the concept of the book. The first chapter of The Fairy-Tale Detectives reminded me of the popular series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Children who love that series will surely be interested in checking out this adventurous mystery. It quickly diverges into its own story about a fairy tale community. To me, this imaginary world where fairy-tale characters coincide with humans just didn’t seem believable. Perhaps it was the over-quirkiness of the characters that took away from the storyline. The book shines with the vast amount of details that help to enrich the story and ensures the reader will visualize the scene. The style of writing seemed appropriate late elementary aged children. However, some of the chapters seemed too long and wordy. I found myself skipping over lengthy paragraphs that described the actions of several characters because I just wanted to get on with the story. My favorite parts of the book are the black and white illustrations done by Peter Ferguson. In spite of their rareness, the illustrations provide a much needed break between the pages and help to visualize the events of the book. The book itself is small in size with a cloth cover; the pages are jagged with a hand-cut feeling. Both of these aspects make the book seem older than it actually is. While I appreciate the overall look of this book, children may opt to go for a book that doesn’t look quite so old and worn. Overall, the book is entertaining and fairly well written. Sadly, for me, the novelty of the characters wore off quickly and I especially found it hard to connect to the main character. I suspect that many children will have a hard time identifying themselves with a main character that is often mean and sarcastic."