Though I recently wrote about how we are in need of more adventure stories and fantasy novels about female characters, I have to recommend a new (well, new to me) series that fulfills my wish and that I think everyone should check out. It’s called The Sisters Grimm, and though I’m currently on book four of the series (out of eight books, so far), I am confident that the whole thing will be a hit with both boy and girl readers.

The series is about two orphan girls named Sabrina (age 11) and Daphne (age 7) Grimm. Their parents are missing, and after a year of spending their lives in between a miserable orphanage and horrible foster parents, the two end up living with their grandmother, who tells them all about their heritage and who they really are—the descendents of the Brothers Grimm of fairytale lore. Their job is to record all of the history of the fables and fairy tales, and to be detectives to solve crimes of a fairy tale nature when they occur.

The books are filled with wonderful adventures as the girls try to find out more about their missing parents. They get acquainted with their grandmother and her friends—a loveable Great Dane, a mysterious and powerful elderly man, and Puck, a the king of the forest, who, though hundreds of years old, is physically only Sabrina’s age.

Throughout the series, you fall for the Grimm girls. Not only are they tough after having relied upon one another for their year as orphans; they’re also clever, crafty, and surprisingly strong. Despite their age, they can battle anything that comes to pass—from giants to kidnappers, deranged fairy tale people to monstrous creatures—with mostly their wits and a bit of on the spot creativity. And isn’t that the kind of clever fighting we love to see from our favorite heroes, like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson?

Though Michael Buckley, the author of the series, put in plenty of male characters to add to the Grimm girls’ adventures (unlike many authors of male-centric fiction fail to do with female characters, unfortunately), they usually take a back seat to Sabrina’s, and sometimes Daphne’s, heroics. Though Puck occasionally bails them out of trouble with his fairy tale strength and power of flight, for example, it is Sabrina who saves his life, along with the rest of her family’s lives, from several monsters on one occasion. Though Sabrina is full of rage—largely directed at the fairy tale people, or “Everafters,” as they are called in the series, as some of them kidnapped her parents—the calming presence of her eccentric grandmother and loving sister are her anchors, rather than the team of boys one might expect in such a situation.

From ogres to jabberwockies, practical jokes to battling under the ocean, nearly every fantasy element one could ever want is in the book—even the fabled Magic Mirror of Snow White lore. Kids who love fantasy and adventure should definitely be given this series as a gift—not just so they can see that girls can get the job done and have an adventure just as much as boys can, but because it’s just that fun to read.