This is the sequel to A Tale Dark and Grimm. Ah yes, a follow up to one of the darkest most violently disturbing children’s fairy tales I’ve ever read. Well. While I can’t say I relish cracking this one open from a pure book enjoyment perspective, I must admit that my curiosity is a bit piqued as to what gruesomely horrible things Gidwitz will describe for his readers this time.
Turns out, I like this about eleventy-billion times better than it’s predecessor! Yes, there is quite a bit of spine-shivering gore, but I found it slightly less horrible this time (maybe because I was prepared for it?) But there was a lot about this that was a huge improvement. I felt the tales in this story hung together better, the quest that Jack and Jill go on is comparatively easy to follow and kept me engaged. The violence and gore were more tempered by the rest of the story, and ultimately the excellent message the book is giving. The message that you should truly be yourselves. It’s not a subtle message either, the author beats you about the head with it in the last few chapters. But I actually even like that! Give kids an interesting engaging (okay, probably even a bit “cool”) story that ends with the uncool kids, the outcasts, the excluded, learning to be okay with who they are and not seeking acceptance in the eyes of others? That I can get behind. Big win for Gidwitz here.
I would still recommend this for Grades 4 and up. Certain third graders with a high threshold for gore may be able to manage it, but beware. As my students have pointed out many a time, you can’t unread what you have read.
Pure grossness: An excessive amount of vomit occurs in this story.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A frog falls in love with a girl. A girl kisses a frog. It is mentioned that in an alternative version of the story a girl and frog marry. A man tells a little girl not to wear underclothes. A girl is made to walk naked publicly in a procession. A mermaid is naked to the scales. A girl is undressed and redressed by goblins. A queen in proposed to. Someone draws slips to see if he can marry the queen. Someone kisses a frog.
Profanity – “piss,” “dummy,” a man shouted a word “that I cannot print here,” “bejeezus,” “shut up,” “stupid,” “jeez,” “damned,” “oh God,”
Death, Violence and Gore – A frog is served frog’s leg soup. A frog is hurled against a wall. His leg comes off and is eaten by a weasel. He bleeds from where his leg had been. A man offers to not cut off someone’s head. A man was nearly stoned to death. A boy’s mother died. A fox eats chickens. A boy is hit with a whip. A girl hits a boy. A woman pricks three people’s fingers causing them to bleed. People swear on their lives to accomplish a task, and if they can’t accomplish it, they will die. Jack enters a cave that many men have died trying to enter. There’s a threat to sever someone’s hand. Someone volunteers to taste fear and feel death and promises to never flee even to the point of death. Jill wishes she could kill her cousin. Someone will be killed and eaten. Birds are roasted, panfried, boiled in blood, chopped up and blackened. Someone tricks others into slitting their stomachs from their belts to their throats. The gutting is described in some detail. After a fall someone suffers a head injury and blood pools in the grass. A girl is swallowed by the sea. A girl’s mother died of sickness and her father was cruel. Several women’s throats are cut. A girl finds a hut filled with instruments of death. A girl buries an ax in a man’s bone. Then she grabs a long curving knife and tries to stab a man with it. A girl is killed. Goblins are likely to trap you, kill you and sell you for parts. People are concerned that ravens will eat their corpses. There’s an illustration of a severed hand. A boy imagines stabbing someone. Certain things cost a hand. Someone draws slips to determine if he will live or die. A goblin is speared with a horrible crunching slicing sound and the spear ends up covered in viscera. Unsurprisingly, he is dead. Another has blood spurt out of his chest like a fountain and then dribble out and run among the cobblestones. Blood bubbles out of a body like a hot spring and laps against the throne. There is a lizard that is made of fire and eats human flesh. Someone threatens to kill two others if they are not killed in the process of doing a task. There is a smell as if flesh had been rotting for a thousand years. Acid burns people’s skin. Many things are made of human bones. Bloodstained bags swing at the end of ropes. We’re told that these bags are just the right size for a child’s body. A man slaps himself in the face repeatedly. People are put in barrels, nails are driven into the barrels and then they are rolled down a hill.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – A man is selling gin. A girl works in a tavern. Ale, scotch whisky are mentioned. A man drinks scotch and ale.
Frightening or Intense Things – A woman pours a bucket of ice water on a beggar asking for food. A boy accidentally burns down his house. Goblins surrounds someone and press around that person in a threatening way. Someone is kidnapped.
