by Liesl Shurtliff
Amazon rating: 4.8/5, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 4.07/5
Common Sense Media: Not Reviewed
4Rbooks: 5/6, grades 3-6
292 pages
Synopsis:
Borlen is a dwarf. Unlike most dwarfs, he doesn’t want to be stuck underground his whole life and his fascinated by the surface and the humans who life there. His parents are very disappointed and do their best to keep his focus on proper dwarf life. After many years of toiling in the dark mines below, Borlen if finally presented with an opportunity to escape to the surface.
While he appreciates the warm sunshine, cool breezes, and interesting humans, things don’t work out as well as Borlen hoped. He becomes a unwilling servant to the Queen and is given the assignment to make sure the Huntsman kills Snow White.
Instead, he finds himself, and his six dwarf friends entrusted with protecting and saving the princess. With the help of his magic mirror and Prince Florian Borlen must find a way to rescue the princess, his friends, and himself.
Parental Guidance: low
Some typical fairy tale violence.
Recommendation:
This is another “fractured fairy tale.” The author takes the well-known tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and repackages it from the viewpoint of Grumpy. The basic elements of the original story are there, but layers of background have been added, and new twists on the plot are included.
This is the fourth such novel written by Liesl Shurtliff. The others are Jack, Rump, and Red. I thought this was a cute read, and most upper elementary students should enjoy it, boys and girls. It was a little slow at times with all of the background detail, and the dialogue wasn’t always riveting, but it was still a fun story and reimagining of the Snow White tale. The action scenes were well done. More of them would have been appreciated.
Many of the reviews on Amazon and Good Reads shared that they thought this was the least interesting of the series so the other three must be pretty good.
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