Monday, June 28, 2010

The Fairy-Tale Detectives

by Michael Buckley
Prince Frederick, Md.: Recorded Books, 2005.

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 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.

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