A Tale Dark and Grimm / Adam Gidwitz / 256 pages / Fairy Tale

This is the true, authentic story of Hansel and Gretel as told by the Brothers Grimm...sort of.  Complete with back (or pre) story and afterstory, it has numerous almost endings, clever language manipulations, and note-worthy insights into proper behavior, loyalty, and under-standing.  ""Are there any small children in the room now?  If so, it would be best if we just...hurried them off to bed, because this is where things start to get well...awesome.  But in a horrible, bloody kind of way."  In this tale, Hansel and Gretel have to square off against the worst from the Brothers Grimm's other tales.  This is a zany, sometimes extraordinarily violent mishmash of mayhem under the guise of fairy tale.