The Fairy Tale Detectives

Two young sisters, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, discover they have an unusual heritage in Michael Buckley’s The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy Tale Detectives.

After being abandoned by their parents, the girls move to modern-day Ferryport, New York to live with their hitherto unknown grandmother. They soon discover they are related to the Grimm brothers—and that the Grimm Fairy Tales are not fairytales at all. When grandmother is kidnapped, they must tap into their magical backgrounds to save her and Ferryport.

Detectives is the first in a six-book series for young readers. At times, the book reminds me of the Lemony Snicket A Series of Unfortunate Events. In both series, the children are orphaned, face mortal dangers, and define difficult vocabulary words. Detectives is not as charming and clever as Unfortunate Events, but it is more upbeat and not quite so grim (excuse the pun).

The Fairy Tale Detectives is a good introduction for children to fairytales and classic literature (including Shakespeare). The book is smart and well written, and I would particularly recommend it for parents and children as it reads a bit young for an adult audience.