Some of my students and I had been eagerly anticipating the final volume of The Sisters Grimm Series. It was with a great deal of joy and sadness that I read Michael Buckley’s recently released book, The Council of Mirrors. Buckley cleverly completed his saga; while his characters matured with their experiences, they maintained their unique personalities.

This series is a must read for any child who enjoys fairy tales, adventure, humor, and magic. There is a richness to the series because readers are introduced to fairy tale characters of whom they may never have heard. Even a reader with a solid literature background, will be intrigued to learn more information about Mordred, Morgan le Fay, and Excalibur from Arthurian legend, Puck from Shakespeare, and Baba Yaga, from Russian folklore. Buckley does not limit himself from using only characters from the Brothers Grimm, but he entwines their lives with stories from Hans Christian Andersen, Andrew Lang, Washington Irving, Charles Perrault, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Carlo Collodi, and American tall tales.

Michael Buckley describes the series in the following YouTube video, which was produced before the last book was published.

On the website for the series, readers can write their own tales by providing ideas for characters and dilemmas.

http://sistersgrimm.com/newsite/index.html

A delightfully created companion book, A Very Grimm Guide: Inside the World of The Sisters Grimm, Everafters, Ferryport Landing, and Everything in Between, has also just been published. Any fan of the series will want to check this out.

The Sisters Grimm Series (This must be read in order!)

1    The Fairy-Tale Detectives
2    The Unusual Suspects
3    The Problem Child
4    Once Upon a Crime
5    Magic and Other Misdemeanors
6    Tales from the Hood
7    The Everafter War
8    The Inside Story
9    The Council of Mirrors