The author of A Tale Dark and Grimm (2010) starts over--sending young Jack and Jill on a fresh quest for self-knowledge through trials and incidents drawn (stolen, according to the author) from a diverse array of European folk and fairy tales. Foolishly pledging their lives on finding the long-lost Seeing Glass, cousins Jack and Jill, with a three-legged talking frog to serve as the now-requisite comical animal sidekick, set out from the kingdom of Märchen. They climb a beanstalk, visit a goblin market and descend into a fire-belching salamander's lair (and then down its gullet). In a chamber of bones ("It gave new meaning to the term rib vaulting"), they turn the tables on a trio of tricksy child eaters. Injecting authorial warnings and commentary as he goes, Gidwitz ensures that each adventure involves at least severe embarrassment or, more commonly, sudden death, along with smacking great washes of gore, vomit and (where appropriate) stomach acid. Following hard tests of wit and courage, the two adventurers, successful in both ostensible and real quests, return to tell their tales to rapt children (including one named "Hans Christian," and another "Joseph," or "J.J.") and even, in the end, mend relations with their formerly self-absorbed parents. Not so much a set of retellings as a creative romp through traditional and tradition-based story-scapes, compulsively readable and just as read-out-loudable. (source note) (Fantasy. 11-14)

Gr 3 Up-Gidwitz is back with a second book that, if possible, outshines A Tale Dark &; Grimm (Dutton, 2010). Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, cousins Jack and Jill have had a particularly tough day. Jack has a mean-boy problem: he's bullied and tortured by a clique whom he hero-worships. Jill has a mirror-obsessed, pettily cruel mother who lets her daughter walk naked, unaware, in front of the entire kingdom. But our woe-ridden hero and heroine are in for far worse: a skyscraping beanstalk, a fratlike group of giants, a deadly mermaid, and an oversize fire-breathing salamander show up before these brave, loving, and realistically flawed children get their happily ever after. This book, like the first, features a bold-font "storyteller" who introduces, explains, and comments on the story as it unfolds-usually with alacrity as he promises gore in the pages ahead, but with a fair dose of true insight into the characters and what makes them, like us, human. However, the chapters derive only loosely from fairy tales; they are mostly Gidwitz's inventions, which allows the character and story arcs to congeal into a satisfying whole. Most delightfully, that snarky, insightful narrator reminds us that stories were once verbal, communal experiences. This book begs to be read aloud, preferably to children who delight equally in hearing about pools of vomit and blood and about triumphant heroes.— Allison Bruce, The Children's Storefront, New York City

In this A Tale Dark & Grimm companion, Princess Jill joins up with cousin Jack and a frog; they set off on a life-or-death quest to find the "seeing glass," encountering goblins, mermaids, and a monster. A closing note explains sources (Grimm, Andersen, Mother Goose, Christina Rossetti, and the New Testament). This book is gory, hilarious, touching, and lyrical all at once.

The author of A Tale Dark and Grimm (2010) starts over--sending young Jack and Jill on a fresh quest for self-knowledge through trials and incidents drawn (stolen, according to the author) from a diverse array of European folk and fairy tales. Foolishly pledging their lives on finding the long-lost Seeing Glass, cousins Jack and Jill, with a three-legged talking frog to serve as the now-requisite comical animal sidekick, set out from the kingdom of Märchen. They climb a beanstalk, visit a goblin market and descend into a fire-belching salamander's lair (and then down its gullet). In a chamber of bones ("It gave new meaning to the term rib vaulting"), they turn the tables on a trio of tricksy child eaters. Injecting authorial warnings and commentary as he goes, Gidwitz ensures that each adventure involves at least severe embarrassment or, more commonly, sudden death, along with smacking great washes of gore, vomit and (where appropriate) stomach acid. Following hard tests of wit and courage, the two adventurers, successful in both ostensible and real quests, return to tell their tales to rapt children (including one named "Hans Christian," and another "Joseph," or "J.J.") and even, in the end, mend relations with their formerly self-absorbed parents. Not so much a set of retellings as a creative romp through traditional and tradition-based story-scapes, compulsively readable and just as read-out-loudable. (source note) (Fantasy. 11-14)

The grossness quotient has gone up in Gidwitz-s companion to A Tale Dark and Grimm, his grisly reimagining of classic fairy tales. Translation: this second foray is even more enjoyable than the author-s acclaimed debut. The protagonists in this installment are Jack, Jill, and a talking frog, whose adventures begin separately in reworkings of -The Frog Prince- and -The Emperor-s New Clothes,- before the three join forces in -Jack and the Bean-stalk.- Parental cruelties are more ordinary this time-mockery, neglect, and recrimination-but what the children find in their quest for the Seeing Glass is horrifying enough to compensate for any perceived softness at the outset. When Jill rescues Jack atop the beanstalk by accepting the giants- eating challenge, even the Monty Python gang might cringe at the results-it-s the phrase -no guts, no glory- brought to Technicolor life. Gidwitz can do nuance, too, as Jill-s perilous encounter with a sympathetic mermaid demonstrates. Technically polished, and with more original content, this romp has lost none of the edge of its predecessor. Ages 10-up. Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Company. (Sept.)