The Fairy-Tale Detectives

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have had a difficult childhood. After the mysterious disappearances of their mother and father, they were shuttled from the orphanage to a myriad of terrible foster homes. The latest – and last – is that of a woman claiming to be the grandmother they were told was dead! To make things worse, the old lady clearly has a bit of a screw loose – she tells them that they are descendants of THE Brothers Grimm – and that the famous book of fairy tales is actually a record of real observations. Throughout the years the Grimm family has upheld a tradition as fairy-tale detectives to clear up any mischief involving the Everafters. Sabrina must overcome her skepticism, and her desire to protect herself and her show more sister, in order to take up the family role and save the town, and her family from the clutches of a malicious giant.

While I was annoyed at Sabrina’s stubborn refusal to accept magical status (once I have suspended my disbelief, I expect characters to follow – it’s an egotistical failing of mine), it was very naturally and realistically done. There are believable emotional reasons behind her behavior, and being left ‘in charge’ of her younger sister has taken a real toll on her. I loved the take on Prince Charming, Jack the Giant Killer, and the Big Bad Wolf, but I really disliked the portrayal of Puck. The character seemed to have much more in common with Peter Pan than with the woodland sprite I know and love. Still – it’s a decent way to get kids interested in Shakespeare, I suppose.

The characters were likeable and believable in these fractured fairy tales, and there were enough twists to keep younger readers guessing and older ones entertained. A great series for anyone who likes quick and quirky fractured fairy tale fun. show less

The first entry in an on-going middle-grade fantasy series, The Fairy-Tale Detectives follows the story of Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, who, after a year and a half in and out of various foster homes, find themselves deposited with the grandmother they had no idea existed. Sabrina, the elder at almost twelve, is naturally distrustful - a characteristic much amplified by more than a year's experience with abusive and/or neglectful adults - and determined to protect the more innocent Daphne. She wants none of this strange Grandma Relda, with her colorful food, mysterious preoccupation with fairy-tale creatures, and somewhat foreboding companion, Mr. Canis; and has no interest in staying in Ferryport Landing, the small forest-enclosed town, show more on the banks of the Hudson River, to which she and Daphne have come. But when all her preconceived notions - her conviction that Relda Grimm is a fraud and a lunatic, her belief that those stories known as "fairy-tales" are fiction - are utterly destroyed by witnessing a two-hundred-foot-tall giant kidnap Grandma Relda and Mr. Canis, Sabrina swings into action, Daphne at her side. She may have lost one family, when her parents disappeared, but Sabrina Grimm is not the girl to lose a second, now that she's finally found it...

I was curious to see how I would like this first entry in Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series, as so many of my online friends seem either to dislike it, or, at best, to be ambivalent about it. Although rather strict, in my ideas about what makes a desirable folk or fairy-tale retelling - I prefer faithfulness to the original - I am far more tolerant of works of fantasy fiction that are inspired by various folk traditions, as they are generally not presented as retellings of the original stories themselves. In fact, the overlap between folklore and fantasy is a particular area of interest for me, and something I would like to research. Given that this is so, it's probably not that surprising that I enjoyed The Fairy-Tale Detectives more than some of my fellow reviewers. I liked the idea of it, and I enjoyed many of the details of the story: that Grandma Relda was so colorful, that Mr. Canis (erstwhile Big Bad Wolf) was a reformed character, that Prince Charming was a not-so-charming opportunist, out for number one. I appreciated the fact that the Grimms, and the "Everafter" community that they helped to establish, were relocated to the Hudson Valley, as this seems to offer an oblique commentary on the immigration of so many Germans to this continent, and the safe-haven (however imperfect) it supplied to them. Finally, I really appreciated Sabrina's character, and didn't find her distrust of adults at all unbelievable. Yes, she was rather obnoxious at first, but I would have been far more skeptical and displeased, if she had simply accepted the situation in Ferryport Landing, and learned to trust again, all in an instant. These things take time, and I think Buckley made the right decision, in allowing her distrust to play itself out naturally, only overcome by the evidence of her own senses.

All that said, this wasn't a book without flaw, and I did find myself a little impatient with the way Buckley conflated any number of works of fantasy and fairy-tale. If Ferryport Landing was established to house those creatures and beings that the Brothers Grimm - ancestors of our Sabrina and Daphne - encountered through their stories, then the cast of characters should have been limited to the Grimms' fairy-tales. Or, if it was necessary to bring in the work of other fairy-tale authors (Andersen, Perrault) and modern fantasists (Baum, Carroll), then some sort of explanation should have been offered. Perhaps, once established, the town (originally "Fairyport Landing") began to attract other creatures? I also felt that the informative afterword, in the edition I read, was at times misleading, and at times factually inaccurate. Without ever stating this explicitly, Buckley made it seem as if the Brothers Grimm were the first to record fairy-tales, when any reader with even a cursory knowledge of the subject knows that they were preceded by the French salon movement, which was itself inspired by earlier Italian traditions, in the same vein. I was also very frustrated (yet again!), to see the factually incorrect statement that the Chinese variant of Cinderella was the first to be recorded, as the story of the Greek slave girl Rhodopis (see: The Egyptian Cinderella) predates it by more than a millennium.

Leaving these issues aside - and they seem to be questions of a more scholarly, rather than literary nature - I did enjoy The Fairy-Tale Detectives enough to want to read subsequent entries in the series. I'm curious to see how Puck's inclusion in the Grimm household will work out, whether Sabrina's trust issues continue, and how the mysterious Red Hand society - could this be a reference to the "Red Hand" of Irish mythology? - comes into all of it. It looks like I will have to track down a copy of The Unusual Suspects... show less

I really did not expect to like this as much as I did. This was a super fun middle grade book that is a part Once Upon a Time, part Grimm, and part Nancy Drew. Sabrina and Daphne have been bounced around between horrible foster homes after their parents disappeared, and they are finally placed with a woman who claims to be their grandmother.

Turns out fairy tales are real, the characters have been trapped in the town of Fairyport Landing by their ancestor, and their own family has been cursed to always have someone in town as well in order to maintain the barrier.

The plot was super fun and twisty, and the characters aren't as you'll know them. I really liked this and will be continuing on with the series.

I listened to the audiobook, and show more the narrator did a great job. show less

How easy it would have been for The Fairy Tale Detectives to have slipped into a maudlin or hackneyed mess! However, author Michael Buckley provides enough of a twist on each of the fairy-tale creature (or Everafter as they're known in the book) and enough sly humor to make this book a pleasure for all ages.

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are portrayed as real children, neither impossibly goody-goody nor impossibly brilliant. As the girls rocket from one adventure into another, readers will get plenty of suspense and adventure. My 18-year-old daughter listened to the first two CDs of the book on the way to college and can't wait to finish the book! That's proof that this debut novel in the Grimm Sisters' mystery series is a treat for young and show more old alike! show less

Sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been moving from foster home to foster home ever since their parents' disappearance, and each home has been successively worse. Then, an old woman appears, claiming to be their grandmother, and taking them to live at Ferryport Landing. But Sabrina's parents always said their grandmother was dead, so she's not about to believe it, or any crazy things the lady says about being descendants of the Grimm brothers who may just have been recording history.

The first of the Sisters Grimm series has a little bit of everything: mystery, adventure, and fractured fairy tales. Sabrina and Daphne's relationship was good but realistic, with a little bit of good old-fashioned arguing and manipulation, and I enjoyed show more their interactions. I also had fun recognizing fairy tale characters and discovering the author's reinterpretations. L.J. Ganser's narration of the audiobook was well done, with each character instantly recognizable. My only complaint as an adult reader is that I saw some of the twists coming a mile away, but I daresay I wouldn't have noticed a bit as a child. show less

What if all the magical creatures from fairy tales were real? And I do mean all of them -- not just the traditional fairy tales that the [a:Brothers Grimm|7071552|Brothers Grimm|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] & [a:Hans Christian Andersen|6378|Hans Christian Andersen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1183230200p2/6378.jpg] recorded, but [b:Alice in Wonderland|13023|Alice in Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1)|Lewis Carroll|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1391458382s/13023.jpg|2933712], [b:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|236093|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)|L. Frank show more Baum|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327894516s/236093.jpg|1993810], and even guys who get around a lot, like Puck. And what if they were all contained in one place (upstate New York, of course) by the descendants of Wilhelm Grimm?

The first thing my 5-year-old talked about when he woke up this morning was this book, specifically what a jerk Jack is. We finished it last night (much later than I had intended to read) and he (and his 7-year-old brother) can't wait to get the next installment from the library this afternoon.

This is a great read-aloud: fantastic dialogue & descriptions, lots of action, and a wonderful assortment of characters. It's just too bad this reader is so terrible (or at the very least, terribly inconsistent) with accents. There's a grandmother with a faint German accent. Oh, dear. Prince (now Mayor) Charming and Jack the Giant Killer are both described as having British accents, which Charming seems to have dropped almost entirely most of the time, and Jack ranged between Cockney, Australian and even Jersey (New, not old) at one point. show less

This first book in the "Sisters Grimm" series reads like one part Lemony Snicket, two parts "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and a healthy dose of just about every other children's fantasy written in the last decade. Once again, we encounter would-be orphans who discover a here-to-fore hidden family history of magical obligation. Once again there is a quest -- this time with a miniature Snicket-style "whodunit" tossed in -- and once again... surprise... our heroes are miraculously successful -- if not totally victorious -- discover that they aren't quite as family- and friend-less as previously supposed, and learn a little something about themselves in the process. Woohoo.

To be fair, though this is pretty formulaic at its roots (as, show more frankly, many perfectly decent books are), there are some important twists. First, of course, there's the fact that our heroes are actually heroines (two young girls and one disorganized but feisty granny), which is refreshing. Second, the descriptive style, while aimed at the young and therefore occasionally overly didactic, has a certain detective-style realism (the 12-year-old is realistically annoying at moments, the 7-year old has a good emotional and behavioral range, the house is sufficiently but not overly disordered, and most of the characters are dynamic and occasionally surprising) that makes reading it a pleasant experience. Also, the fairy tale characters -- who, we discover, have much more to them than we the fairy-tale inundated reading public might expect -- are real characters, rather than stereo- or archetypes, with multiple levels of personality and motivation.

So, overall, though this somewhat cinematic first installment might be dreaming of Snicket-like success, it does seem to hold its own. If you like this style of books (and especially for those who found Snicket too depressing and Spiderwick too quick), this is definitely worth a read. Of course, I reserve final judgment until after I've read further into the series. Stay tuned... show less