Dead Upon a Time

by Elizabeth Paulson

Overview

One girl is kept in a room where every day the only food she's given is a poisoned apple. Another is kept in a room covered in needles -- and if she pricks her finger, she'll die. Then there are the brother and sister kept in a cell that keeps getting hotter and hotter. . . .

A sinister kidnapper is on the loose in Kate's world. She's not involved until one day she heads to her grandmother's house in the woods -- and finds her grandmother has also been taken. Already an outcast, Kate can't get any help from the villagers who hate her. Only Jack, another outsider, will listen to what's happened.

Then a princess is taken, and suddenly the king is paying attention -- even though the girl's stepmother would rather he didn't. It's up to Kate and Jack to track down the victims before an ever after arrives that's far from happy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545640466
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Paulson lives on the edge of the woods somewhere in America.

Editorial Reviews

The distance between “Once upon a time…” and “happily ever after” is Grimm rather than Disney in Paulson’s fairy tale montage. Kate Hood is not Little or Red, and she needs no woodsman to rescue her from the wolves attacking her as she takes supplies to her grandmother’s cottage. Something more sinister than wolves has taken her uncommon grandmother, who left behind beautiful but macabre tapestries of vanished fairy tale victims. Kate futilely attempts to elicit help from nearby villagers. She decides the only person willing to help is fellow outcast, Jack Haricot of beanstalk fame. The two find their way to King Wilhelm, whose beloved Ella is among those kidnapped, and he is willing to pay handsomely if Kate and Jack can return her. Reviewer: Donna L Phillips; Ages 11 to 18.

VOYA, August 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 3) - Donna L Phillips

2015-05-12
A mishmash of fairy-tale influences and images underlies this debut. Kate Hood has only an old grandmother, and they live together in the woods. When wolves set upon her as she carries groceries home from the village and she finds their cottage empty, she flees to Jack Haricot (exiled after that thing with the giant). Nan left a series of tapestries depicting imprisoned young women—one with a shorn head, another surrounded by poisoned apples, and a third locked in a hot cell with her twin brother. Sadly, these characters are mostly neither named nor seen for more than a few minutes in Kate's visions. Kate and Jack, meanwhile, are summoned to the king and told to rescue the princess, who has been (nonsensically) kidnapped; they set off, fall in love, and save the day. As in the fairy tales that give this some structure, the world is thinly sketched at best, characters are representations, and action occurs because the plot dictates it. The writing is clumsy, overt and unsubtle, with some full-on malapropisms ("clairvoyant lungs"), and the tone is anachronistic (rented rooms and tin cans side by side with a pastoral, industry-free society) and dated at the same time (Kate refers to schooling Jack in "the cautious listening of women"). Fairy-tale retellings grow like briar hedges; there's no reason to read this one when so many better efforts exist. (Fantasy. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Once upon a time there was a young woman named Kate Wood, who took food baskets to Nan (her grandmother) in the woods, fought off wolves, and like Nan, was “uncommon.” Shunned by the Shepherd Grove villagers because of her family’s magical powers, Kate is desperate for help when Nan disappears. Her one clue is the strange tapestry Nan left behind in which terrible scenes of suffering with children imprisoned in cellblocks have been stitched. Children have been disappearing from the village for some time now. Kate goes to her childhood friend Jack (also “uncommon”), who has been hiding in the woods ever since the ‘giant killing’ fiasco. He agrees to help, but they are captured en route by Constable Sterling of the village and taken to King Wilhelm for questioning. Princess Ella has also disappeared. Kate convinces King Wilhelm that she and Jack can find Ella along with Nan. Privately, she suspects his evil new wife, Queen Cecilia. Kate finds a second tapestry in Ella’s belongings, similar to Nan’s, with the words “you’re next” inscribed at the top. Stitched in both is a trail of vines that leads to a brick fortress. A similar path in the forest leads Kate and Jack to the fortress, where Catarina, Nan’s evil twin, resides. She has been luring Nan and Kate all along and needs “uncommon blood” to maintain her evil state and beauty. Ella, the children, and Jack (also captured) are released in exchange for Kate, but Constable Sterling arrives unexpectedly. An enchantment spell is lifted revealing his true identity, Kate’s long lost father. Catarina is defeated and imprisoned. Kate happily takes up residence with her father and Nan. Jack contentedly stays in the woods and most of the children live with Ella and the king. Their families and evil Queen Cecilia remain a mystery, but that’s another story. Reviewer: Sharon M. Himsl; Ages 12 up.

Children's Literature - Sharon M. Himsl