ESK to Host Best-Selling Author Adam Gidwitz

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Episcopal School of Knoxville is pleased to welcome author Adam Gidwitz to campus Monday, October 19, 2015. Gidwitz is the best-selling author of the A Tale, Dark and Grimm series along with a new book, So You Want to be a Jedi?, a retelling of the Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Gidwitz will speak to second through eighth grade students due to the generous support of ESK’s Parent Association. He will speak to students in Googe Hall at 9 a.m. and again at 10:15 a.m. in the Clayton Family Library Parents are invited to attend either presentation.

The A Tale, Dark and Grimm series has received rave reviews, topped the New York Times Bestseller list, and most impressively captivated countless young people who did not consider themselves readers before picking up A Tale Dark and Grimm.

Gidwitz’ honest treatment of the original versions of the Grimm tales is spine tingling and terrifically terrifying in the healthiest of ways. Gidwitz has written an insightful essay on the importance of these frightening fairy tales to help children overcome their own fears about life and the world around them. He writes, “The land of the fairy tale is not the external world. It is, rather, the internal one. The real Grimm fairy tale takes a child’s deepest desires and most complex fears, and it reifies them, physicalizes them, and turns them into a narrative. The narrative does not belittle those fears, nor does it simplify them. But it does represent those complex fears and deep desires in a form that is digestible by the child’s mind.”

Students in fifth through eighth grade have read A Tale Dark and Grimm either in their language arts classes or in their library classes. They have thoroughly enjoyed this brilliant rewriting of several of the original Grimm’s fairy tales, which feature Hansel and Gretel as the protagonists. Students in second through fourth grades have been introduced to some of Grimm’s better-known fairy tales.

Gidwitz will sign copies of his books for students following each presentation. Books are currently on sale through Miranda Clark in the Lower School library. The A Tale Dark and Grimm volumes are available in paperback for $8 each, and So You Want to Be a Jedi? is available in hardback for $18.