Book Review: Strange Stories, Peculiar Lessons is a new collection of fairy tales

Time for my second review of the day. This one is for a collection of short stories done by Stephen Groll, and it's Strange Stories, Peculiar Lessons.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Story:
This book is actually a collection of short stories which feature kids learning life lessons through a series of strange adventures, or misadventures. Some of those stories involve the characters from his novel Beyond the Dead Forest, continuing their adventures. Several of these stories he's shared in the past, but there are some new tales in the mix as well, such as a Christmas adventure for Carter and Kat. It was good to read each of these tales, and Stephen Groll has shown quite the imagination in crafting all these unique places each character travels to, and comes up with a lot of monsters found nowhere else in fiction. These tales are reminiscent of the Tales of The Brothers Grimm, while combining with the morality of the Tales of Hans Christian Anderson. And just like both collections, these tales can be dark and scary as each character faces the problems they go through. But there is still hope, as there is always hope, in living our lives to help others instead of ourselves.
Caution:
Children in peril. An implied death. Some monsters may be scary sensitive readers.
Lessons:
We find more happiness and joy in living for others instead of ourselves. Bad things sometimes happen to good people. We can learn from our challenges and become better people.

Message from Dymos

            Hi everyone. This is going to sound strange, but I actually got a message from Dymos! I was just about to go to sleep when I took a look at the mirror.

Yes, that mirror. Instead of a reflection I saw a girl of about eight staring back at me. I knew there was no way it was on Earth because her clothes were Bylouthian. I have to admit this surprised me because the only way to get to Bylouth is to pass through a portal in Europe.

            Anyway she asked me if I was David Glenn, and I told her I was. She then proceeded to tell me she had a dream that she was told she needed to give me. She said she saw in her dream a boy and a girl about four years older than she was running through a forest somewhere. She told me it wasn’t a Bylouthian forest, or anywhere on Dymos. I asked how she knew and she said she just knew. I asked them what they looked like and she said the boy had blonde hair while the girl had red hair.

            My eyes went wide at that because I recognized them as Carter and Kat, characters from a book I read, Beyond the Dead Forest by Steve Groll. I asked her if they were all right, and she said they were fine. However she could only remember hearing something coming for them before she awoke. That’s when she encountered another surprise.

            She said that she saw a very beautiful woman sitting at the edge of her bed. She wasn’t able to get a good look because the woman was glowing brighter than a fire. The girl said she could only compare that light to the sun on a clear day. The woman told her to make contact with me and tell me what she had seen in the dream. She asked the woman what her name was and was told that she was someone who was given beauty from her ashes. After that she vanished and the girl found her mirror was showing my room.

            This was a really big surprise because I had never heard of an angel from one world visiting another. Yes, that was an angel because I also recognize her from a book I read. The angel was Sara from Sara’s Journey by Patti Chiappa. I know some of this may sound crazy. However there are many things that go on around us that we cannot explain. We just need to believe.