A Tale Dark & Grimm

By Adam Gidwitz, Hugh D'Andrade (illustrator),

Book cover of A Tale Dark & Grimm

Book description

In this mischievous and utterly original debut, Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm-inspired tales. As readers follow the siblings through a forest brimming with menacing foes, they learn the true story behind (and beyond) the bread crumbs, edible houses, and outwitted…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked A Tale Dark & Grimm as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I read this a few years ago, thought it was cute, and moved on. I recently reread it on a much deeper dive, and I found a story that was so much more than it appeared initially.

Gidwitz’s humor is excellent—I laughed out loud reading this. But he also touches on so many themes that are present throughout fairy tales while not shying away from either the darkness or the light.

I loved the way he combined some of the lesser-known tales with Hansel and Gretel to make something that was more than any one story had been before. It…

I love humor in stories (I even perform improv at a comedy theater in San Diego!), and this book is the funniest, quirkiest fairy tale retelling I’ve ever read. It is filled with dark humor and nods to the sometimes-gruesome source material, including cannibalism and children getting their heads chopped off (did you know you could get away with head-chopping in a children’s book and make it funny?!) and lots of warnings to the “little kids” that they better stop reading. Somehow, the book is able to remain lighthearted as Hansel and Gretel flee their own story and journey into…

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