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Eleven year-old Princess Jill, sister to King Jack and daughter to Mother Goose, is spoilt and impulsive and prone to trying to sneak out of doing her chores, but she’s also brave and smart and determined, so, when she receives a message from someone known only as F.G., urgently asking for her help in the nearby Kingdom of Grimm, she sets out immediately.
Accompanied only by a very contrary girl named Mary, whose negative outlook on life helps keep her focused, Jill makes her way across Grimm, discovering along the way that the girls and women of the land seem to have fallen into a trance that has them all enamoured of Prince Charming and determined to be chosen as his bride at an upcoming ball given by his parents, the King and Queen of Grimm. This enchantment has made allies of former enemies, including Gretel and the witch, and Snow White and her stepmother, and has caused Rapunzel to forget her noble prince and dream of marriage to Charming.
With the help of the men of Grimm, Jill and Mary find F.G., a fairy godmother and friend to Cinderella, and learn that the enchantment of girls and women is all part of a nefarious plan, on the part of a monster named Iron Hands, to steal the kingdom’s gold. As the hours tick away and the ball approaches, Jill and Mary must rescue Prince Charming, his parents, and the kingdom’s elves from the castle in which they are held prisoner, find a way to free the women of Grimm from their enchantment, and see to it that everyone does, in fact, get to live happily ever after!
Things are Looking Grimm, Jill is a clever and amusing story about the characters who inhabit the nursery rhymes and fairy tales of our childhood. Dan Bar-el has Jill and Mary and their friends jumping off the page and into our imaginations!
Things are Looking Grimm, Jill won the 2008 Silver Birch Express prize!
FernFolio Editor