The Grimm Legacy

Just the cover is enough to pull in a die-hard lover of all things fantasy, and the title's implication of a story steeped in Brothers Grimm fairy tale magic was enough to have me waiting in line to snatch this one up on it's release day. Strangely enough, Barnes has this one hidden in the childrens section of their store (even though it says right on their site that it is YA) so I had to do a little searching and asking. Now that I've read it, I have to say they have it misshelved! This is definitely YA---alittle lighter than most of what's out there these days, but still definitely YA. For one thing, the main characters were all high school age, and there was some definite PG-rated kissing!
Ok, now onto the actual review. :) This book show more was enchanting. For those of us who know and love either some or all of the Grimm Fairy Tales, this book read like an old familiar friend. It completely stirs the imagination. The setup was alittle slow, it took about fifty pages in to really get the fun part of the story going as the protagonist, Elizabeth, aquires the job at the repository and learns the ropes. The fun starts when she starts learning about the Grimm collection---real magical items from all the classic fairy tales! Who hasn't daydreamed about what they would do with a flying carpet, winged shoes, or a table that sets itself with plates of delicious food?? Then the adventure really takes off when items and repository employees start disappearing. Elizabeth and her friends can't decide who to trust (including each other!) so they take it in their own hands to solve the mystery! It's definitely a fun ride, everything is very visual and I can see this making an incredible movie someday. *crosses fingers!*

Elizabeth is a great character, she is smart and kind and considerate of others which in the end serves her well! I would have liked to know a little more about her background, because her life beyond school and this new job is just barely presented. I really liked how each character seemed to have a good side and a bad side---it really kept you guessing who the culprits were!

All in all, a great read! Light and adventurous, and very magical! show less

It’s an unprepossessing nameplate: The New York Circulating Material Repository. Elizabeth Rew is hoping her new job will involve working with books, but it turns out to be more than that, “like a circulating book library with far more varied collections”. She’s given a brief rundown on its history — informative but not very enlightening, she thinks — on the day she starts as a lowly-paid ‘page’, assisting the librarians with day-to-day tasks:

We’ve existed in one form or another since 1745, when three clock makers began sharing some of their more specialized tools. That collection became the core of the repository in 1837, when a group of amateur astronomers pooled their resources and opened shop. Our first home was on show more St John’s Park, near Greenwich Street, but we moved uptown to East Twenty-fourth Street in 1852 and to our current location in 1921…

Elizabeth is starting to understand this is no ordinary lending and reference collection. Furthermore, she begins to find herself fascinated by a mysterious restricted section. And then situations and events commence moving away from the mundane. Towards the magical.

New York’s Manhattan seems to be an ideal place to set a story based on a fairytale collection: it has a multi-ethnic mix with varied cultural traditions; it boasts a legacy of Victorian-period brownstone buildings which, in a city seemingly the epitome of modernity, are still prized; and as with every great metropolis even everyday things can seem extraordinary. Friendless Elizabeth, the drudge in a family with an offstage stepmother and stepsisters, fulfils the classic dogsbody role taken by the fairytale protagonist; she even plays the Good Samaritan as such plucky heroines should. Luckily a sympathetic teacher is able to recommend her for after-school employment in the repository; here she soon finds other like-minded pages such as Marc, Anjali and Aaron. Pretty soon she hears whispers about the Grimm Collection which houses objects as diverse as worn-out dancing shoes, seven-league boots, talking mirrors and mermaids’ combs; and, wonder of wonders, she is even allowed to borrow items…

But the existence of magic in a world generally ignorant of it has the potential to cause problems through unwitting use, deliberate misuse and the abuse of trust. Elizabeth, her new friends and librarians alike must discover the source of thefts from the Grimm Collection, and the investigations lead inevitably to unforeseen dangers.

Polly Shulman has written a worthy update to those fairytales that seemed forever set in a vaguely medieval Teutonic countryside. An opening realistic setting in a New York winter, on city streets, in school corridors and gymnasiums, settles to the ordered life of the repository before gradually sliding into nightmare. There are echoes of E Nesbit when we come to the intrusion of magic and even nods perhaps to Diana Wynne Jones in the concepts of Nowhere and the Garden of Seasons inspired by the repository’s (fictional) Tiffany windows.

While sometimes the plotting seems to me to be a little clunky and episodic, overall I thought this was an enchanting novel, and I found the last third of the novel impossible to put down, sleep notwithstanding. The whole is embellished by descriptive chapter headings with illustrations by Kristjana S Williams. Thinking back, my memory is of a kaleidoscope of images and concepts: the inner workings of the repository with its ‘pneums’ and adapted Dewey system; the various figurines, dolls and puppets that form a key part of the plot; the sheer villainy of the novel’s bad guys; the improvised rhymes and raps that form the spells that work the magic; and, last but not least, the magical objects of the collection. Shulman even manages to include sub-plots on the theme of love’s course rarely running smooth, a dilemma which young adults sadly too often find themselves subject to.

Elizabeth herself is an engaging first-person narrator, with a witty line in dialogue, put-downs and self-deprecation; I wonder if Tiffany’s ‘Girl with Cherry Blossom’ inspired Shulman’s depiction of her, both visually and in terms of the final denouement.

http://wp.me/s2oNj1-shulman show less

High-school student Elizabeth Rew is feeling lonely: her new stepmother is taking up most of her father's time, and she's just transferred to a new school where she doesn't have any friends. So when her history teacher suggests that she get a job with the New York Circulating Material Repository, she looks forward to the new experience. The Repository is a lending library for objects, including famous historical artifacts like Marie Antoinette's wig; but Elizabeth soon discovers that there are even more important objects to be found. Specifically, the Grimm Collection houses fairytale items with magical properties, including flying carpets and seven-league boots. As Elizabeth explores the wonders of the Grimm Collection, she also show more befriends her fellow employees, including popular Marc, beautiful Anjali, and standoffish Aaron. When some of the magical items go missing, it's up to Elizabeth and her newfound friends to discover who is stealing from the Grimm Collection -- before they become the thief's next victims.

A few years ago I read Polly Shulman's other book, [Enthusiasm], and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me quite as well. I absolutely loved the premise -- what if you could actually borrow the magic mirror from Snow White or Aladdin's lamp? -- and many of the details related to this concept worked very well. I especially liked the idea that borrowers had to leave a "deposit" for the items, which could be something like their sense of direction, their singing voice, or their firstborn child. The problem with the book is that it's geared toward a very young audience. I don't have a problem with YA in general, and I've read many excellent books in the genre, but this one really felt like YA or even juvenile fiction. If I'd read the book at age 11, I probably would have loved it, but as an adult, I found it far too simplistic. There were also a few plot points that weren't fully fleshed out, such as Elizabeth's relationships with her dad and stepmom. Overall, the book is a decent read, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really OK with juvenile or YA fiction. show less

Elizabeth Rew does not have any friends in her high school; unlike most teens, she actually gets the most joy out of her school work. After writing an A paper on the Brothers Grimm for her history teacher, Mr. Mauskopf, he offers to set her up with a job. She agrees and finds herself working at a freakin' sweet and unique library. Rather than lending books, this library (repository) lends materials, like chess sets, antique doublets, parasols and vases. In addition to that stuff in the main stacks, the 'dungeon' has all of the magical and science fiction-y items, straight out of fairy tales and novels. Elizabeth finds danger, excitement, friends and romance once she finally gets to open the door to the Grimm Collection in the show more dungeon.

The Grimm Legacy brimmed with magic. I love the premise; I so want to work at that library! The magical objects are hilarious to read about and Elizabeth is exceedingly likable. While many of the side characters lack depth, they were not totally static either. The focus of the book is more on Elizabeth's feelings about herself and development as a person that it is on the dastardly plot of a villain to steal the priceless items from the Grimm Collection. The whole mystery plot line is a bit absurd, with the bad guys never seeming any real threat and not being particularly hard to discern either. That said, do not read this out of a love for mystery.

This is a book for book lovers; Shulman's love of books and libraries exudes from every page. She compares Elizabeth to an ordinary fairy tale heroine throughout the story and makes some clever observations. It is always nice to find more teen books where the heroine does not have to be incredibly beautiful or a princess or an incredibly beautiful princess. Elizabeth is smart and, while certainly no troll, not particularly pretty. Her romance, too, follows a more believable pattern than I see in much teen literature.

This is a fun, fast-paced, magical read, well worth your time! show less

Shoot, I removed all my bookmarks before writing down the quotes I wanted to save. But, I still remember that this was a really enjoyable read full of fairy tale lore, though it's set in modern-day New York.

The fun begins when one of Elizabeth's teachers sends her to interview for a job at the New York Circulating Material Depository. It's a library of sorts, but instead of lending books, it lends all kinds of things - including objects from the Grimm Collection, objects associated with the fairy tales the Grimm brothers collected. Something shady is going on with the GC, though, and Elizabeth has to figure out if she can trust her fellow pages, and how they can find out what's going wrong - and stop it.

Her relationships with the other show more pages - including hotshot basketball player Marc, prickly Aaron, and beautiful, competent Anjali - develop in a realistic way, outside of the bounds of school.

Neat: Each of the pages has a different way of sensing magic; Elizabeth can smell it.

Also neat: There is a unique object at the library called the kaduo, which holds the deposits people make when they borrow special items. These deposits aren't money or physical valuables; rather, they are things like one's sense of direction, sense of humor, or firstborn child.

Overall: fast-paced, magical, and realistic, this will capture the imaginations of kids and teens who want to believe magic exists - but know that sometimes it creates more problems than it solves. show less

Elizabeth (not Lizzy, Betsy, Bitsy, etc.) begins a job at the New York Circulating Material Repository only to learn that there is a room with all kinds of objects from the Grimm fairy tales - and most of them are magical. Things have been disappearing, though, and soon Elizabeth and her friends are tangled up trying to figure out what's going on and why the objects seem to be losing their magic. All while missing her mother, putting up with her (wicked - or at least, not very nice) step-mother and dealing with typical teen/high school self-doubt.

The concept is a good one and was what made me read the book. However, I agree with those who were disappointed to not see it fully realized. The real excitement in the story doesn't start show more until 2/3 through the book and by then I was just reading it to be done with it. I didn't really care that much about the mystery. And, it felt like everything got tied up neatly too quickly. Things just fell into place. They get riddles to solve, but don't really solve them...just kind of fall into following what they said would happen.

The characters are interesting, although the narration can be a bit redundant in giving the reader comments about the character traits for the others over and over again. A couple times I thought, "OK already, I get it - he's snotty" or whatever.

Granted, I'm a bit older than the people this book was written for, so perhaps kids would like it much better and not be bored through most of it like I was. However, the Grimm stories that are referenced are not ones - or at least the versions of them - that most kids are going to be familiar with unless they've read the REAL Grimm's fairy tales. Although it might make them curious about those tales afterward...but not all kids are ready for the scary non-Disney versions.

So, basically, this one missed the mark for me. The concept was great, but the story itself faltered around too much in the exposition and sets up some good possibilities, but then the action dies before it really begins. It could have been a great magical adventure book, but instead it's just OK. show less

While I love the idea of a library that circulates, among other more ordinary items, magical items from beloved fairy tales, I ultimately disliked this book, thanks to the awful main character. One can check out Seven League Boots, or a mermaid's comb to enhance one's own hair, but in order to do so, you must leave something of your own behind: your sense of humor, or even your future first-born child.

As much fun as the idea was, Elizabeth, the book's main character, got in the way. She was naive, selfish and so very frustratingly blind and foolish - the fact that this girl was chosen for such a delicate job made NO sense, which in turn made the rest of the story annoying.

The Grimm Legacy proves that a poorly drawn, or unbelievable, show more character can ruin a great story. show less