 The Sister's Grimm series, written by Michael Buckley, is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
Many of us grew up hearing about Grimm's Fairy Tales, you may have even been someone who read those versions of the tales. If it's been years sense you've heard those stories, then you'll love reacquainting yourself with the characters you met as a child and your children will love meeting them for the first time in this exciting twist to the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Meet Sabrina and Daphne, two girls who discover they are the decedents of Wilhelm Grimm and the stories they thought were just tales are actually real-life accounts of magical creatures called Everafters. In the town of Ferryport Landing, Everafters began to rebel against humans causing Wilhelm to cast a spell that would prevent them from leaving, but at a steep price. There must always be a Grimm within it's walls forced to stay with the Everafters. As fairy-tale detectives, the sisters solve mystery after mystery ensuring the peace between humans and Everafters, while trying to solve the biggest mystery of all: the disappearance of their parents. Buckley magically intertwines past fairy tale knowledge throughout the pages of a new tale. Readers can have fun identifying old friends, seeing the new shapes they have formed: Prince Charming as the Mayor, Snow White as a school teacher, the Three Little Pigs as police offers and much more. Here are some more interesting tidbits:
This is just a taste of the treats that awaits you in the series. Buckley's understanding of these tales provides a complete foundation for this series, one that he perfectly builds on, giving us more tales to add to the collection.
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 The Looking Glass Wars, written by Frank Beddor, is a retelling of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.
Beddor takes Carroll's classic tale of a young girl who falls into a rabbit hole and completely reinvents it into a world of adventure pinning good vs. evil. The original does the same with Alice vs. the Red Queen. The difference with this book, Alyss is from Wonderland and Red is her aunt. Princess Alyss is next for the thrown of Wonderland which is currently run by her mother, that is until her Aunt Redd comes into the picture. Furious about being overthrown by her younger sister, Redd gets revenge killing both the Queen and King, leaving Alyss orphaned. Alyss escapes with Hatter to our world. Separated, Hatter feverishly searches for the princess, while Alyss is must conform to the reality of her new life. One of my favorite parts, she gets adopted by the Liddells and meets Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author of the original tale of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll himself. Beddor actually takes real life events and plays them out in his retelling. Just like real life, they go on a boat ride together. The difference, it's Alyss who tells him the tale of Wonderland and he takes her stories to create Alice in Wonderland and it's through this book that gives Hatter the clue he needs in finding the lost princess. My absolute favorite part of this story is the idea of imagination being a form of magical powers. In Wonderland there are two forms, White Imagination and Black Imagination. No doubt which categories Alyss and Redd fall into. What makes me like it so much is that one of the main themes in Carroll's version was imagination. The fact that imagination can be so powerful it makes a little girl believe she was in fact in a fantasy world where a queen wanted to cut off her head. In Beddor's version, he uses imagination as a form of a weapon, away for Alyss to avenge her parents and get back the crown that belongs her. Here are some more interesting twists:
And that is juts a taste of the fun retelling this trilogy offers you.  Peter and the Starcatchers, written by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry, is a retelling of the Peter Pan story.
Ever wonder how Peter Pan learned to fly or where Tinkerbell came from? What about Neverland and Captain Hook? Well in this retelling of a classic story, Barry and Ridley explore just that. In this version, Peter is an ordinary orphan boy traveling to a new country with his friends (the "lost boys") on a ship called Neverland. He meets a girl name Molly who introduces him to a world of star power. In this world, how do people fly? Not with fairy dust, but with starstuff, the remains of a shooting star. With this starstuff, people not only fly, but creatures are created, like the loch ness monster. As Molly explains the battle of the starstuff, two halves: one designed to protect it known as the Starcatchers, the other dying to use it, a pirate called Black Stache (aka Captain Hook before the hook) is after the trunk in which the starstuff is being held, a trunk leaking out this powerful dust. A battle ensues and the group crashes onto a remote island, inhabited by a native tribe called the Mollusks. So how does this story become the Peter Pan we know. Here's a rundown:
The best part, the story doesn't end there. This is the first in a series involving the boy we know as Peter Pan, an official website you can view and a Broadway play you can see.  Juliet Immortal and Romeo Redeemed, written by Stacy Jay, is a retelling of Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo and Juliet.
* If you have not read these books and don't want me to spoil anything, please stop reading. As a book lover, I hate to ruin anything for anyone. * While the plot was a little confusing (alternate universes?), here’s what made this retelling interesting: 1) In order to become an immortal dark Mercenary, Romeo tricked Juliet into killing herself. 2) Juliet became an Ambassador of Light, forever becoming an enemy of Romeo and working to save soulmates from his wrath. 3) To help his cause of breaking up soulmates, Romeo spun the story of his and Juliet’s love for Shakespeare. Thus helping the author to write Romeo and Juliet. 4) The Friar who married Romeo and Juliet was actually a Mercenary himself and Juliet’s Nurse was the Ambassador sent to save the star-crossed lovers. The Friar won that battle. 5) The Friar and the Nurse were soulmates themselves. 6) Ben Luna is also Benvolio who is a second soulmate for Juliet and Ariel Dragland is also Rosaline who is a second soulmate for Romeo. I think if you can get past some of the supernatural confusion, these stories are quite interesting in how Stacy Jay plays around with the original Shakespeare tale to tries to make it her own. Last week I finished reading Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and since then I've been wanting to get here and right a review about it. Thank god I found the time today.
For starters, I read it in two day. I've been trying to limit my reading to my commute using my time at home to write. But, on that second day, I just had to continue reading it to find out what happens. Needless to say, I didn't get any writing done that day. I really loved the concept of this book. My favorite part was the mixing of Hannah's story with that of Clay's. I liked the two distinct voices and how it contently jumped from one to the other, sometimes so quickly you could almost miss it. What I also liked was seeing what stories pushed her to the brink of no return. Some can seem so trivial to us, a bad joke that we've all experienced in our lives, but how in someone who is depressed, that one bad joke could be the final straw in their lives and how a string of bad jokes make them feel like they have no place else to go. I definitely recommend this book to read. It's an eye opener as well as a page turner. But it doesn't get so dark that it can be scary. It's a good mix. |
