The Grimm Legacy

Shulman, Polly. The Grimm Legacy. Book 1 of the Grimm Legacy series. 2010. 325p. ISBN 0-399-25096-4. Available on the library shelves at FIC SHU.

Elizabeth Rew is having trouble adjusting to a new life. Her mother died, and her father remarried to a woman who already had two teenage girls. Elizabeth feels lonely, and now she doesn’t even get to spend time with her father. The only highlight of her day is her English class, with Mr. Mauskopf. The rest of the time, she hangs out by herself.

When Mr. Mauskopf asks the class to come up with a topic to study, Elizabeth selects the Brother Grimms on a whim. They were her favorite stories, and she has fond memories of her mother reading them to her. Mr. Mauskopf is suitably impressed with her paper, and he offers her a job at the New York Circulating Material Repository, a library of objects that can be checked out by companies and individuals.

There she meets the dreamy Mark, a star basketball player who goes to her school, but whom would most likely never have spoken to her. She also meets Anjali, a beautiful Indian girl, and Aaron, who pins hard for Anjali. The four teens are pages at the library. It is their job to retrieve items off the shelves and bring them to the circulation desk, and to shelves returned items.

Among the mundane but precious items at the Repository are several intriguing collections, including the HG Wells, HP Lovecraft, and the Grimms Collection. Elizabeth quickly discovers that the items in the GC are in fact magical. Many of them were accumulated by the Grimm brothers themselves, and were the inspiration for their tales. From the magical mirror in Snow White to the boots of seven leagues, each object in the collection is powerful.

Elizabeth also discovers that there is a thief stealing objects from the Repository, as well as a giant bird ready to do harm to those in possession in a GC object. With Mark, Anjali and a reluctant Aaron, Elizabeth plans on solving this mystery. The thief, however, has other ideas and suddenly Elizabeth finds herself a target. Can she trust anyone?

This story is entertaining and very creative. What would the world be like if the objects in the fairy tales really existed? Fans of magic in a modern day setting will thoroughly enjoy this book, and will definitively like The Raven Boys series.