The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

January is Otherworldly

With a new year, why not start out with some new worlds? Some of these worlds are truly unique, unlike our own, others are similar but hold secrets, yet others hold possible futures for us. Dystopia has been a big teen lit craze lately. Get ready for whimsy, heartbreak, action, adventure, and exploration.

Update: The companion piece to this book The Wells Bequest is scheduled to be released on June 13, 2013. It is not a traditional sequel, but rather a book that lives in the same world created in The Grimm Legacy.

Elizabeth is pleased when her favorite professor recommends her for a job at the New York Circulating Material Repository. When she arrives, however, her uneasiness grows. Dr. Rust asks her a bunch of crazy questions like how many dishes she's broken in the last year, and to sort some buttons however she wants...and she's not sure but it looks like his mole just moved. The good news is she gets the job, and is soon the newest page at what may just be the strangest library she's ever seen!

The "stacks" are full of strange and curious objects, alongside boring normal ones, and all are shelved by call numbers. When the number comes down, she pulls the object, and sends it up in a dumbwaiter to the waiting customer. Elizabeth learns that some of the most valuable historical objects are being held there: like Marie Antoinette's wig and Abraham Lincoln's hat!

She learns something else too: there are areas of the Repository that are off-limits for even more bizarre reasons. The Wells Bequest, the Lovecraft Corpus, and the Gibson Chrestomathy...and the Grimm Collection. The Grimm Collection holds items that the Brothers Grimm collected along their travels. Each holds a mysterious power; most artifacts are tricky and there is almost always a cost for using them. As she gains more trust from her employer, she is allowed more privileges. She can even check out artifacts!

There is something strange going on though, certain objects seem to be disappearing or losing their potency. Several people have reported seeing a massive bird, and there is some speculation that the bird is after the pages! After some of the pages start to behave strangely, Elizabeth tries to get to the root of it. Her fellow pages seem to be involved in something dangerous. Can they get to the bottom of who is damaging Grimm artifacts before they become casualties themselves?

Great mystery story with elements of magic and whimsy. There is some romantic tension without being too sappy, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Grimm references. This appeals to the realistic fantasy fiend in me. Highly recommended.

"'I never lose my keys.'
'Excellent. All right, sort these, please." Dr. Rust handed me a box of buttons.
'Sort them? Sort them how?'
'Well, that's up to you. isn't it?'
This had to be the strangest interview I'd ever heard of. Was I going to lose the job because Dr. Rust didn't like the way I sorted buttons?
I poured them out on the desk and turned them all face up. There were large wooden disks and tiny pearls, shiny sqare buttons made of red or blue or yellow plastic, sparkly star-shaped ones with rhinestones that looked as if they would shred their buttonholes, little knots of rope, a set of silver buttons each engraved with a different flower, tiny rabbits carved from coral, plain transparent plastic buttons for inside waistbands, big glass things like mini doorknobs, a heavy gold button studded with what looked like real diamonds," (Shulman pg 12-13, 2011).

*Library Link*

If you liked this, check out:
The Wells Bequest by Polly Shulman (Grimm Legacy, Book 2) June 13, 2013
Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman
The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley (Sisters Grimm, Book 1)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Shulman, Polly. (2010). The Grimm Legacy. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.