The New York Times Book ReviewEach story flows into the next with humor, cleverness and an oddly absorbing realism…Gidwitz plays fast and loose, with reality a springboard from which to reapproach age-old stories.
—Holly Black
Publishers WeeklyThe grossness quotient has gone up in Gidwitz's companion to A Tale Dark and Grimm, his grisly reimagining of classic fairy tales. Translation: this second foray is even more enjoyable than the author's acclaimed debut. The protagonists in this installment are Jack, Jill, and a talking frog, whose adventures begin separately in reworkings of "The Frog Prince" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," before the three join forces in "Jack and the Bean-stalk." Parental cruelties are more ordinary this time—mockery, neglect, and recrimination—but what the children find in their quest for the Seeing Glass is horrifying enough to compensate for any perceived softness at the outset.
