Sina Haase

It’s an okay story. I could’ve done without the parts about the children piling up in the backyard cemetery “due to starvation and lack of love,” but other than that I was pretty much entertained. It’s no Harry Potter but a decent fairy tale to get lost in. The pictures are decent as well. Easy to read and my 4th grader is reading it to me now too each night although I already finished it myself in one night because it was peaking my interest (although it takes quite a few chapters to really get to that point of “can’t put it down-ism”) I left it at reading 2-3 chapters a night before a week went by and it finally got exciting enough for me to finish the rest of the book. It’s about 64 chapters I think. Enjoy reading with your children but beware of the children starving parts (we haven’t gotten to that part yet with my daughter) Where I live, there a ton of homeless people including homeless families in and out of motels and on the streets/shelters. Hunger is a real problem and to make it no big deal for kids to die from it in a fairy tale is a little much for me but I get that it’s just a story. The sad thing is, if a child read this book and realized their reality is actually them going hungry vs just reading it in a fairy tale wouldn’t feel so good to go to bed afterwards. You’re supposed to look up and realize “it’s just a fairy tale..” but what if you looked up from reading and it wasn’t? Then that’s awful but whatever that’s JK’s question to answer herself what that could do to her readers.