The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman
The Nitty Gritty: Elizabeth Rew is a modern day Cinderalla. Well without the wealthy father, but she does have a bossy stepmother and vain stepsisters. She is the new kid in school and after a hasty rescue mission for a bullied girl she finds herself shunned from the 'It' crowd. After a school assignment on the Grimm fairy tales she is offered a job at the New-York Circulating Material Repository hoping to make a new friend or at least some money to buy a new pair of sneakers.
Liz is surprised by the nature of the Repository and delighted to find that they have a Grimm Collection, but all is not well at her new place of employment. Missing pages, mysterious giant birds and missing articles have Elizabeth questioning everyone and everything.
Opening Line: Snow fell hard: big, sticky flakes that got under my coat collar where the top button was missing.
What's the 411: It seems like the only way to get my fairy tale kick is to troll the children's and teen section of the library. Lately I've been trying to elevate my pallet and stick with the YA section. So the title of this book is what jumped out at me. Hell anything with the word Grimm in it is enough for me. I had this book for a while in my room and finally I got around to reading it. It was a fast and easy read for sure.
It was sort of like eating a bowl of whipped cream. It gave you a sugar rush for sure but in the end you felt like you swallowed a bunch of air and you need to go and get a proper meal. It was just a cute story. A naked baby in a bathtub with a joyous grin on there face. You can see the potential on their face, but they are still a baby and nothing more.
The Good: Well this is a good twist on the idea of the library. Instead of patrons taking out books they come to the Repository to check out items. Like a Table-Be-Set. You can get the German or French version. Personally I would take the German version.
Elizabeth wasn't as annoying as some of the YA female leads that I've read. Though she did spend more time comparing herself to Anjali than I would have liked. That is just something that irks me to no end.
The Bad: This is a YA book not a children's book and this book is extremely simplistic in its plot. Shulman set herself up for something really good and darkly sinister with the theft of Grimm artifacts, but she didn't take it that step further. I mean we are dealing with people bold enough to steal artifacts that people borrow while leaving their first born children behind as collateral. I mean we should be dealing with wicked people trying to take over the world with Pinkie and the Brain or something like that. But all we get is a cartoonish villain and a siller denouement to all the terrific build. Its a huge let down when you finally get the end of the book. Well except for the conclusion of the relationship between Liz and one of the male characters.
there is a tricky balance to be kept between going too far with YA books and not going far enough for YA books. I mean we want teenagers to skip through the roses and color rainbows, but these are budding adults and in this day and age they do deal with tougher and more adult issues and for the most part many YA books are a tad more advance, but they do reflect real life more than this kiddie book. It would have made more sense as a middle grade or even a children's story.
My Final Say: I think she should rethink her career as a YA author and try her hand in the children's section.
The Nitty Gritty: Elizabeth Rew is a modern day Cinderalla. Well without the wealthy father, but she does have a bossy stepmother and vain stepsisters. She is the new kid in school and after a hasty rescue mission for a bullied girl she finds herself shunned from the 'It' crowd. After a school assignment on the Grimm fairy tales she is offered a job at the New-York Circulating Material Repository hoping to make a new friend or at least some money to buy a new pair of sneakers.
Liz is surprised by the nature of the Repository and delighted to find that they have a Grimm Collection, but all is not well at her new place of employment. Missing pages, mysterious giant birds and missing articles have Elizabeth questioning everyone and everything.
Opening Line: Snow fell hard: big, sticky flakes that got under my coat collar where the top button was missing.
What's the 411: It seems like the only way to get my fairy tale kick is to troll the children's and teen section of the library. Lately I've been trying to elevate my pallet and stick with the YA section. So the title of this book is what jumped out at me. Hell anything with the word Grimm in it is enough for me. I had this book for a while in my room and finally I got around to reading it. It was a fast and easy read for sure.
It was sort of like eating a bowl of whipped cream. It gave you a sugar rush for sure but in the end you felt like you swallowed a bunch of air and you need to go and get a proper meal. It was just a cute story. A naked baby in a bathtub with a joyous grin on there face. You can see the potential on their face, but they are still a baby and nothing more.
The Good: Well this is a good twist on the idea of the library. Instead of patrons taking out books they come to the Repository to check out items. Like a Table-Be-Set. You can get the German or French version. Personally I would take the German version.
Elizabeth wasn't as annoying as some of the YA female leads that I've read. Though she did spend more time comparing herself to Anjali than I would have liked. That is just something that irks me to no end.
The Bad: This is a YA book not a children's book and this book is extremely simplistic in its plot. Shulman set herself up for something really good and darkly sinister with the theft of Grimm artifacts, but she didn't take it that step further. I mean we are dealing with people bold enough to steal artifacts that people borrow while leaving their first born children behind as collateral. I mean we should be dealing with wicked people trying to take over the world with Pinkie and the Brain or something like that. But all we get is a cartoonish villain and a siller denouement to all the terrific build. Its a huge let down when you finally get the end of the book. Well except for the conclusion of the relationship between Liz and one of the male characters.
there is a tricky balance to be kept between going too far with YA books and not going far enough for YA books. I mean we want teenagers to skip through the roses and color rainbows, but these are budding adults and in this day and age they do deal with tougher and more adult issues and for the most part many YA books are a tad more advance, but they do reflect real life more than this kiddie book. It would have made more sense as a middle grade or even a children's story.
My Final Say: I think she should rethink her career as a YA author and try her hand in the children's section.
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