Sisters in peril

The Sisters Grimm, Michael Buckley (2005-2010), Amulet Books, 8 vols (so far)

Perhaps you’ve figured out by now that I love a clever writer, someone who can take the usual plot and turn it on its head, someone who assumes her readers know a thing or two.

Buckley is just such a writer. This series is fun, especially in the way he tweaks familiar characters and plots from fairy tales that I, at least, took like vitamins. One-a-day, everyday. (Thank you, My Little Bookhouse!)

Sabrina and Daphne, orphans (of course), find themselves placed with a grandmother they thought had died, but who is actually living in the little town of Ferryport Landing, New York. “New York” is reassuring, but soon after they arrive, we realized that Ferryport is more like Fairy-port. Characters from well-known tales work in the store, teach at the school, run the town. Their own grandmother–well, no more.

In each book, the orphans find themselves meeting so-called imaginary creatures (a giant, the Big Bad Wolf, the Jabberwocky), and the surprise is discovering who’s a friend and who isn’t.

The series design (kudos to Jay Colvin for this work) is wonderful as well. Hard-cover with gold-embossed spines, rough-cut page edges, black silhouette drawings heading the chapters, each book just 5.5 x 7 x 3/4 inches. I love holding these books, a sensation that no Kindle or iPad could ever match.

They’re leveled for Middle Grade, but YA readers would probably enjoy them as well. And perhaps the books will inspire readers to go back to the original stories by the Grimm brothers.

The Fairy-Tale Detectives, The Unusual Suspects, The Problem Child, Once Upon a Crime, Magic and Other Misdemeanors, Tales from the Hood, The Everafter War, The Inside Story.