There is way too much dark violence and subject matter for kiddos younger than twelve, to my thinking. I'm going to trust that he knows what they can handle, but my personal limit would be 12 or older for these books. I mean, he has to in order to teach them.

Gidwitz is obviously a teacher, and he understands the young minds he writes for. Each book seems less appropriate for a younger audience.

Each volume ups the ante on the grim aspect of fairy tales. I do think that this series is required reading for those who like fairy tales and especially clever retellings. I am sad that this series is over, but it ends in such a satisfying way. I didn't hate or even dislike this book, I just thought it hit some nerves. In the end, I recommend reading the other books first, or maybe just stopping with the second one. Couldn't the mother have been doing something else? Making a tapestry or something? Why in this day with kids barely reading would we want to throw ANY negative light on reading at all? I am worried about negative connotations toward parents who read or, gosh forbid, go back to school to improve their family's lot in life. The story redeemed itself for awhile with the scene with the Devil and his grandmother (who probably need their own series) and then tanked again with the big, long battle scene featuring a bunch of return characters I forgot about from the other books. On top of that, we now need to know the other two books (which I read YEARS ago and barely remember) I found that odd in a companion book and is more in line with a sequel. Now, suddenly, we are ripped out of the story and into a pity party for people whose parents have divorced. Where it went wrong for me was the jaunt out into the real world. The parents are good and evil, the ravens are about and we have a puzzle for the main characters to figure out. I don't know why we always have to have a girl/boy combo as the MCs, but we do. While I really liked the other two books, I had some problems with this one.

A grimm conclusion