Vivian Vande Velde neatly skewers some traditional fairy tales in this collection of stories.

Most of the stories in Tales from the Brothers Grimm & the Sisters Weird are moderately good -- entertaining, but not terribly deep. This anthology would have joined the ranks of the mediocre if not for one absolutely clever and wonderful retelling of Rumpelstiltskin called "Straw into Gold." This one story makes the whole book worth getting. The others are good, but "Straw into Gold" outshines them by far.

There are many fairy tale retellings on the market these days; those of Robin McKinley (Beauty, Rose Daughter), Donna Jo Napoli (Spinners, Zel, The Magic Circle) Mercedes Lackey (The Fire Rose, The Firebird) and Patricia Wrede (Snow White & Rose Red) are particularly worth checking out.