“Once Upon a Time Fairy Tales were Awesome . . .”  (back cover of A Tale Dark & Grimm)

While I grew up with the classic Disney movies, and loved them, I also grew up on stories much darker and complicated.  Such as The Secret of Nimh, Star Trek, The Witches, Pagemaster, and other’s.  And though I enjoyed the Disney princess movies, and still love them, there was a certain fascination with these more complicated darker tales that drew me in, even more than anything Disney could do.  They felt more real and raw and the endings more satisfying.  

Over the years I continued to love the darker side of fantasy, choosing even to dive into some of the original fairy tales and constantly keeping an eye out for inventive stories like Ella Enchanted.  So, as I became a mother it was rather distressing to see how so many stories and tales turned more and more to the idea of being ‘wholesome’.  It is difficult to find good books that are of interest to children who very much take after their mother (me), children who don’t want to be coddled but want something a little bit scarier and darker.  Yet I, as a mom, would still like it to have good value in it.

So when I randomly came across a book called A Tale Dark & Grimm at a school book fair that promised awesome fairy tales that are frightening with witches, warlocks, and hunter’s I couldn’t help but snatch it up and I have been absolutely delighted with it.  It is an amazing adventure featuring Hansel and Gretel that expertly weaves them through not only a great reimagining of their own fairytale but many others as well.

I love how many different fairy tales and elements the author uses in his book while still keeping a consistent storyline for Hansel and Gretel to follow.  He does not shy away from allowing the characters, children, in his book to go through some horrible and awful situations and scenarios.  Yet everything is told from a narrator’s perspective, third person omnipotent view, so a certain level of detachment is kept and you never go into the minds and feelings of the characters.  Which helps keep it appropriate for children.

The narrator is a character all to himself and is constantly interrupting the story, helping to keep it upbeat and relatable, as well as at times making it seem like the child is reading a story they shouldn’t.  A great way to get and keep a child’s interest.

Each ‘chapter’ is actually a fairytale-like section to the story, bringing up a problem and solving it within that section.  However, while that makes each ‘chapter’ fairly long there are many breaks within each section that helps break up such long chapters and makes it easy to find a stopping point while reading.  On top of that there is an overarching problem with their parent’s that the characters are trying to solve which weaves all of the chapters together. 

While I was first drawn to this book because it promised to bring original fairy tales to my children in all their glory, what really made me fall in love was the absolute honesty it takes in showing the difficulties and problems in family relationships and the journey to come to a ‘happy’ ending.  And I say ‘happy’ because this is no ‘rainbows and unicorns’ ending.  It takes a lot of heartache and trials to bring the children and their parent’s together and while at the end there is love and forgiveness it is not a perfect cloud nine result, which makes it all the more heartwarming to me.  Also, just like the original fairy tales there are many other issues and ideals to be gleaned from the different stories that Hansel and Gretel go through. 

So, if you are looking for a good book for your own kids or just enjoy reading anything about the original fairy tales, or you love inventive stories, I would highly recommend A Tale Dark & Grimm.  Oh, and there are two more books after it that are just as fun and thrilling, In A Glass Grimmly (Jack and Jill), and The Grimm Conclusion (Jorinda and Joringel).