Another hit in the Rump series. Hand to students who enjoy this series or the Enchanted Files by Bruce Coville.

This was a cute retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as told from the seventh Dwarf, Borlen's, perspective. Borlen (unaffectionately nicknamed Grump by all the dwarves) was born near the surface and yearns to explore his whole life. If he goes deeper into the dwarf mines, he's dizzy and sick. This alienates him from all the other dwarves. When he finally gets a chance to (accidentally) go to the Surface, he happily chases freedom and gets entangled with the evil stepmother. Magic mirrors, huntsmen, mining precious gems, and magical beards are all involved for this fractured fairytale.

I enjoyed this. There were a few pacing areas that weren't perfect (the ending felt abrupt), but overall this was very enjoyable and kids will LOVE this! I already have Rump to read next.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of fairy tale retellings, and this one did not disappoint. While this is targeted more to middle grade readers, I think adults will enjoy it as well. It will also work well for parents to read aloud to some of their children that are beginning to be interested in chapter books.

The book is fun and stays close enough to the original fairy tale. A quick and enjoyable read.

Grump is a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves from Grump's point of view. Borlen is an odd dwarf in that he could not as a baby be kept far under ground or he would end up crying and carrying on. Usually dwarves prefer the depths but as Borlen grows up he finds he is different. He didn't fit in and in order to try and help him, his parents tried to earn him a spot on a mining crew where he becomes known as Grump who dislikes mining. His obsession with what lies above them grows until he finds himself above ground.

Therein starts more of what we know as the Snow White tale with a couple of twists to it. I love this series as it gives perspective to other sides of a well known fairy tale. I've enjoyed each of Shurtliff's books and loved how they add a little extra umph to each fairy tale.

This book had an interesting spin on the classic fairy tale, I'm just not sure if I would ever read it again. It's definitely geared towards younger children who, like me, may find some of the names hard to pronounce. I think that was the one draw back. I understand the dwarves were named after types of rock, but since it was hard for me to pronounce them, it was hard for me to keep everyone straight.

For kids that are reaching the age where they feel they are too old for the classic fairy tales but still too young for YA books, this is a good mix. It's a little bit more mature and changes the story just enough to keep it interesting, but has the comfort of an old friend.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Author: Liesl Shurtliff
Publisher: Random House Children's and Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 29 May 2018

Grump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is the fourth twisted fairy tale by Liesl Shurtliff. They are set in the same fairy tale world, but each stands on its own.

Ever since he was a dwarfling, Borlen (nicknamed "Grump") has dreamed of visiting The Surface, so when opportunity knocks, he leaves his cavern home behind. At first, life aboveground is a dream come true. Queen Elfrieda Veronika Ingrid Lenore (E.V.I.L.) is the best friend Grump always wanted, feeding him all the rubies he can eat and allowing him to rule at her side in exchange for magic and information. But as time goes on, Grump starts to suspect that Queen E.V.I.L. may not be as nice as she seems. When the queen commands him to carry out a horrible task against her stepdaughter Snow White, Grump is in over his head. He's bound by magic to help the queen, but also to protect Snow White. As if that wasn't stressful enough, the queen keeps bugging him for updates through her magic mirror! He'll have to dig deep to find a way out of this pickle, and that's enough to make any dwarf Grumpy.

Grump is an entertaining read, and one that offers a cool twist on the Snow White story, from the perspective of one dwarf. I like how the twists to the story explained some of the dwarf nicknames, and I really liked this version of how the magic mirror came to be. Snow was a flawed character, in the best way, and grew into herself as the story progressed. Borlen was flawed as well, but I felt many of his mistakes were ones born out of the desire to be appreciated, which might not have been an issue if he had more support from his family. Other characters were not as fleshed out, and felt more flat to me. The trolls and the dwarf that would be thought of as Dopey in the minds of Snow White fans were my favorite characters through the story.

I did like the development of Borlen's character, and I was extremely sympathetic towards him. I think everyone, including his parents, treated him poorly. I spent most of the book being angry at those that could have supported or at least been civil toward Borlen and failed to. One problem I had with the book is that at no point, aside for a brief moment with Snow, did anyone realize how unfair they had been and make an attempt to change or have any kind of consequence for their behavior or assumptions. This really ate at me and made it hard for me to enjoy the read, although it might not affect others quite the same way.

Grump is a read that fans of the author and series will definitely enjoy. Those that have felt unappreciated or apart from others for things outside their control might enjoy it less so.

I'm a huge fan of Liesl Shurtliff and all of her fractured fairy tales, and Grump does not disappoint. Her take on Snow White, as told through the eyes of Grump the Dwarf, was just as brilliant as her previous novels. While I'll admit that it took me a while to take an interest in the world of dwarves, and the book was halfway over before Snow White's tale becomes the main story, all that buildup turned out to have made the book all the better (and the buildup to the ending was definitely worth the wait - loved her clever take on Snow White's classic ending). Shurtliff has a real talent for fleshing personalities out of all of these classic, one-dimensional fairy tale characters we've seldom thought much about, and she is also a very good writer with a talent for creating meaningful stories that are enjoyable to read. For those new to Shurtliff's world, I would also highly recommend Rump and Red.

This was a fun middle grade fairy tale adaptation/origin story. My oldest daughter liked this book quite a bit.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

I love these retellings of old tales! I like that authors write from another characters POV to create a new story, or a better understanding of the old story. Lisa Shurtliff is really good at doing this. I loved her Red Riding Hood story and Jack in the Beanstalk retellings. She clearly has a good sense of imagination and is a very good writer. I think middle school and teens will enjoy this story (and hope they have read the original before....). Even adult fans of fairy tales should like this one. Not to be missed! Fun, quick, and easy read.

In Grump, Liesl Shurtliff, writes her version of a prequel to the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Told from the point of view of the dwarf, Borlen, also know as the Grump, who hates living underground as a mining dwarf and longs to visit the surface. Happenstances occur that he ends up breaking through to the surface while mining some Borlen, his namesake mineral and the story continues on to explain how the dwarves end up helping Snow White. Students who enjoyed Rump and Red will also like this rewrite of a Grimm fairytale.

Perfect for fans of Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted books. Grump is a fun twist on the Snow White story you think you know, told from the point of view of "Grump," a misfit dwarf who was born too close to the surface and it made him a little odd. (He actually reminds me a bit of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, always dreaming about the surface and collecting surface dweller things…) I love the way the dwarves are portrayed, both the individual characters in the book and as a culture. The world buliding is just so complex and spot-on. Also, the way this book explains the Evil Queen's magic mirror and the whole "fairest" in the land thing is just awesome and explains so much that I never really understood from the original tale.

This book has so many little hidden gems. (See what I did there? That's a dwarf joke.) I LOVE the little Rapunzel shout-out bit when the Queen orders her servants to take a beautiful baby from her mother, and then assigns a servant woman named Gothel to lock the baby up and look after her… DUN DUN DUNNNN! There are so many other little tidbits too, I'm sure some of which I didn’t catch. I spent a goodly chunk of the first half of the book trying to match Grump's dwarf friends up with their Disney counterparts, and was pleased when EVENTS happen later in the book that cause a few quirks to arise that made it clear who at least some of them are. And I knew they would probably align with the Disney movie when Snow White is running around with her best buddy Florian, as that's the official Disney name of her Prince (even though his name is never actually mentioned in the movie).

Grump is written in a way that's accessible to a middle-grade audience, but this book was fun for this 32-year-old Disney and fairy tale nerd as well. Grump would be an excellent book to read aloud to your child, to read along with your early reader, or to read alone for those ready to start some more complex chapter books.

Snow White is my favorite Disney Princess and has been since i was a kid and Grumpy has recently become my favorite dwarf, since a great interaction with him at Disney World! So I was pretty pumped when I saw this book that seemed to be about Grumpy.

This book is told from the dwarves perspective - they are usually born way, way underground but this dwarf in particular was born close to the surface absolutely hated being down far in the ground. So then he was NOT happy when he was added as the "seventh" dwarf - the one that everyone can boss around - working down almost as far as you can go.

But somehow, the crew ended up at the surface and interacting with the Queen and her step-daughter, Snow White. He and the Queen are fast friends because they are both outcasts, but he also has a special spot for Snow White - and ends up saving her life. This is all the story of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves from "Grump's" perspective - but years later after Snow White passed away, humans continued to tell the story and forgot/decided that the dwarves all didn't have real names - and more and more of the story got changed to be more about the humans, because humans always need to be the center of attention!

This is a really nice and different perspective on a story you've probably heard over and over again. My favorite quote from the book was: "I just wish I'd known that getting your wish comes with its own load of rubble"

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

This is another great book in Liesl Shurtliff's series, anyone who is a fan of fairy tale retellings will enjoy this.

I previously read Liesl Shurtliff's Rump and enjoyed her take on the fairy tale world. This time, she takes on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with Grump. I am so excited to add this to my classroom library because I know my students will enjoy the engaging characters and humor. I particularly loved the world-building that Shurtliff uses to bring the lives of the dwarves to life on the page. I would recommend this for readers 8-10. The characters are not as complex as I would like to see, but it fits for the audience.

I was unable to read this book before its release. My students have enjoyed the previous titles in this series so I have no doubt that they would enjoy this title as well.

The latest in this imaginative series of fairy tale take-offs features – you guessed it – one of the infamous seven dwarves. Grump and his fellow dwarves are all here, sneezing, stuttering, complaining and singing. But for reasons both humorous and poignant, Grump has never fit in underground with the others. When he finally ventures to The Surface and encounters a few humans, he feels more at home than he ever did working the deep mines. But poor, gullible Grump is easily duped by the Evil Queen who orders him to verify that Snow White has been killed. She hasn’t. He and his fellow dwarves band together to save the princess (who is no shrinking violet, even if she does willingly nibble from a poison apple). The crew rallies, builds a proper shelter, and for at least a few pages, all is well. But of course, this is a fairy tale and Shurtliff is a master storyteller. Things are bound to take a few detours and wrong turns. Highly readable, fun to share, Grump is the perfect book to kick off a summer of reading.

My students loved Rump, Jack, and Red and I am sure this book will be no different! I can't wait to introduce it to them at the beginning of the school year!

Unsurprisingly, this fourth fractured fairy tale from Liesl Shurtliff was funny, clever, and very entertaining. I enjoyed reading the story of Snow White from the POV of one particular dwarf. The focus was not on Snow White, but on Grump, and his trials and tribulations as he tried to follow his own path. Grump was born different from other dwarves, and his obsession with the Surface ends up getting him into a lot of trouble, but also takes him on a great adventure. Fans of Shurtliff's previous books will not want to miss it.

As usual, Liesl Shurtliff delivers a wonderful twist on a classic fairy tale. If you liked her other titles (Rump, Red and Jack), than you will enjoy Grump. Students will enjoy uncovering why Grumpy really was a grumpy dwarf and what happens when 2 worlds collide.