In A Glass Grimmly

 

I was first introduced to this author in 2011 with his book A Tale Dark and Grimm. ( If your interested my review of that book is here): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7825557-a-tale-dark-grimm.  I liked the first book, but can't say that I loved it.  

Now we come to Adam Gidwitz's new companion book, In a Glass Grimmly and Wow, and I sincerely mean Wow what a wonderful book. Once upon a time, there were two cousins, and well a frog who has three-legs instead of four, because of well an unfortunate accident.  You see these two cousins get themselves in a little predicament when they swear on their lives that they can retrieve a glass that has been lost for a very long time.  It's a good thing that Frog comes along and they have some help from three ravens, otherwise things would be really grim.   Their journey will take them through some famous fairy tales, nursery rhymes with some legends and poems weaved in as well.

I loved the flow of the story with the plot moving along seamlessly. The overall messages weren't preachy but came in the form of  words etched onto the Glass and in the three ravens message to Jack and Jill about being "con-fused."  Another strength for me was the character development with Frog being one of my favorite.  The narrator in the first story was more intrusive with all of his warnings about the gruesome things to come, and in this one was more subtle and well, absentminded at times and way more amusing when he forgot certain things that he wanted to warn about.  The result, is a book that for me was remarkable, humorous and a 5/5 book.  I also loved the authors notes at the end of the book telling the reader where the different stories came from in the book.  Bonus  it also introduced me to my new favorite word...the tunnel turned "precipitously."  Plus the quote "I'd say that all mirrors are magic, or can be. They show you yourself, after all. Really seeing yourself, though -- that's the hard part." (p. 310)

Just for the record, copy of the book provided by Penguin publishing and won at Charlotteslibrary.blogspot. A big thank you to both