The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckely

General synopsis:

The Sisters Grimm follows the story of two sisters (Sabrina and Daphne Grimm: elementary and middle school) whose parents have mysteriously disappeared. The sisters are shipped off to the rural town of Ferryport Landing to live with their rather eccentric grandmother who was just recently allowed to care for them, who they had never heard of, and whose license was revoked (and not because of age). The series follows the sisters as they realize that Ferryport Landing is less than normal (a.k.a filled with disguised fairy tale characters-who knew Snow White was a karate master?), their parents’ disappearance was a fairy-terrorism kidnapping, and their “roommate” is a Shakespearean fairy who looks and smells a lot like tweenage boy (not to mention the big, bad (?) wolf who lives downstairs). Oh…and magic is totally real.

Book 1: 
As the sisters adjust to this new home they discover that they are the descendants of the Brothers Grimm (who wrote history books not fairy tales). They also discover that their family mission is to be fairy-tale detectives. A.K.A. snooping around in their neighbor's business and making sure that the Everafters (magical fairy tale people) are behaving themselves. Also...someone has set a giant loose on the town and it is their job to find out who, why, and how to stop it. 

Why choose this text?

·        The graphics allow for a break from the text and stimulate student imagination

·        The pages are seeped with adolescent humor (farts, first kisses, embarrassing moments, crazy family members)

·        Many important real-world themes portrayed in a digestible story  

o   Family relationships (sisters, parents, grandparents, uncles…the list goes on)

o   Romantic relationships (between kids and between adults)

o   Abandonment and the foster care system 

o   Terrorism/cult organizations

·        There are 10 books. You can hook the students on book 1 and then they might keep reading on their own time

Who should we use this text for?

• Elementary and Middle school readers: Share age with the characters, allows for a mix of abilities (via the long text and the visuals). Could be used with a higher level ELL
• High school readers: For those who are having trouble stomaching larger texts but who still need the experience of reading a full novel

Teaching ideas:

·        Have students follow a character through the text and note character development and struggles and have the students relate their own life and struggles to that character

• Have students write their own shorter versions of a modern-day fairy tale and draw graphics to accompany the story
• Have students do skits of the scenes (there are a smorgasbord of hilarious and embarrassing scenes) and then have them analyze them

Potential Problems:

• ·        The text involves the use of magic (albeit in a very innocent manner) and this could be seen as undesirable by some parents and possibly administrators
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• ·        The text does talk about parents abandoning children and this could be a trigger for some students
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