The Sisters Grimm, Book One: The Fairy-Tale Detectives is the first in a series of six fantastical adventures which follow the life experiences of Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. The story begins with a very pinched-face caseworker delivering them from an orphanage into the hands of their grandmother, Rhelda Grimm and her friend, Mr. Canis, after the girls’ parents disappear without a trace. One would think the girls would be happy to make a home with their grandmother in Ferryport Landing, but Sabrina doubted the older woman was her grandmother, as her father had told them that she was dead. Sabrina’s wariness of Rhelda only intensifies when the old woman cooks strange things, talks to her house, and tells the girls that not only are they the last descendants of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, but also tells the girls Ferryport Landing is filled with fairy-tale beings. It is only after a failed escape resulting in the girls being blood-let by pixies, and subsequently seeing a picture of her father as a boy with a young Rhelda that Sabrina begins to tentatively accept that the old woman just might be her grandmother after all. Later that day, with only the clue of a beanstalk leaf, Rhelda and Mr. Canis are captured by a giant during their investigation of a crushed farmer’s home. Sabrina and Daphne manage to escape only to find themselves lost in the forest where they meet Puck, who happens to be a friend of their grandmother. Puck takes them back to Rhelda’s home where they use books to find information and then find a note from Rhelda telling them to go to the locked upstairs room for their answers. This is when they meet “Mirror-Mirror” from Snow White who shows them an image of Jack, the famous giant-killer. He is in a jail cell, and the Rhelda and Mr. Canis are captured by the giant tells them that they will need to break Jack out of jail to help rescue Grandma Rhelda and Mr. Canis. Mirror-Mirror also gives them a magic carpet upon which to travel and escape the police who are in pursuit of them. Jack helps them form a plan to get into Mayor Prince Charming’s mansion during a fund-raising party in order to get information about the giant but the giant finds them first and crushes the Mayor’s mansion. But Jack was not a help to the girls. We find out that it was actually Jack who had unleashed the giant upon the community in hopes of slaying him and regaining notoriety. Jack unleashes his anger upon everyone including the girls who use the sword, Excalibur, to fend off Jack’s arrows as he admits he is working for the underhanded organization known as the Scarlet Hand, who he says kidnapped the girls parents. In the end, we find out that Mr. Canis is really the “big bad wolf” as he and Jack fight savagely. Yet, it is Puck who saves the day by bringing the Pixies to attack Jack with a bloodletting force that he could not hinder or stop until he was no more. When all of the Grimms, Mr. Canis, and Puck (who has decided to move into the house with everyone) return to Rhelda’s home, they see Sabrina and Daphne’s parents lying in a deep and magical sleep and Grandmother promises they will do everything to find them and bring them home.
This book has me looking forward to reading the next in the series and considering how I could use it in my literature class next school year. I think it would make a great read-aloud during a unit on folktales, fairy tales, and fables. I am so surprised how many of these stories have ever been heard by my students and a unit whereby students read these stories and then scripted them for a reader’s theater would incorporate both reading and writing, as well as back-fill knowledge on stories that are often alluded to in other pieces of text.
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