A Tale Dark and Grimm

I forgot to post about the Book Club’s January meeting centered on a discussion of Adam Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark and Grimm. My bad. A brief overview: we all loved it!

Gidwitz cleverly weaves together various fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm in order to create a story both familiar and completely original. The book is thrilling, bloody, scary, funny, and just plain great! The reader feels the excitement that Hansel and Gretel experience as they run away from home and have their numerous adventures. The insertion of the narrator throughout the story, warning young kids away before especially scary sections, is a unique device which was appreciated by all of our readers.

We’d recommend this book to all readers, though not to the extremely faint of heart. Though even those readers might surprise themselves with courage borrowed from the brave Hansel and Gretel.

First Book Club Meeting

The brand new Book Club for kids in grades 3 through 5 kicked off yesterday with a meeting about The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. Loads of snacks were eaten and there was conversation a-plenty during this first meeting.

The book received rave reviews all around, scoring an average 5 out of 5 stars! The participants loved the humor, realistic emotions, and zaniness of Dwight, the outcast who doles out advice through his Yoda finger puppet. Opinion was divided on what was exactly the funniest moment in the book, though Dwight's horrible sweater vest was mentioned more than once.

As a group, we decided to next read A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz . We wanted to read a book that appears to be quite different from this month's read. So, please join us on Thursday, January 6th from 3:00-4:00 p.m. for another afternoon of discussion, fueled by tasty treats!

And keep your thinking caps on, because we still haven't decided on a Book Club name yet. Come with ideas!

Thanks to all of yesterday's participants. I'm looking forward to a fun new year of reading with you all!