Grimm Fairy Tales Presents The Library #1 (Zenescope – Brusha / Timpano / Buenaventura / Campbell)

When fourteen year old Sela Mathers discovers an ancient magic book in a condemned library her and her younger brother cast a spell that unlocks the amazing worlds and characters from the books and novels around them. Hercules, Robin Hood and Pecos Bill all come magically to life. But heroes aren’t the only characters in stories. Villains too are affected by the magic spell and soon the children find themselves in a race against time to reverse the spell as evil characters from all of literature threaten to take over the world. Their only chance lies with the heroes they’ve brought to life. But even that may not be enough to stop the Frankenstein, Baba Yaga and the Wicked Witch of the West!

This was the first young adult fiction I read that came out of Zenescope and to be honest I didn’t know quite what to expect.  I know the Zenescope creative brain-trust can put on quite a show when the target audience is 16+, but I needed to read this first before I passed it on to my daughters.

My only complaint is that I don’t have the next issue right now.

With everything else that has come out of Zenescope, The Library is brilliant, awesome and of high quality both in the story and in the art.

Brusha re-writes at least part of the Zene-verse history to make it more middle-school friendly.  Sela will still travel the fairy tales, fighting evil – but now her purpose and intention is much more relate-able to a younger crowd.  This issue had high action, bordering on scary, framed out by some very gorgeous art work.

And on top of being a great kid-centric adventure story, it looks like Zenescope will be pushing some of the literary classics and promoting reading.  A double punch of awesomeness for this dad and public educator!

The Bottom Line: I can easily see this as a welcome addition to any kid’s bedroom or classroom!

Grade: Fantastic A