Looking for Newbery - A Tale Dark and Grimm

I had heard so many great things about A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz from my online friends at twitter, I just had to make sure I read it over holiday break. And then, I was reading comments again over at Heavy Medal (I follow this blog a lot before the ALA awards), and A Tale Dark and Grimm was actually being talked about in conversation as being a possible Newbery dark horse (it would depend on whether the committee gave Gidwitz credit for an original idea since he borrows a little from the Grimm's fairy tales).

There are two main reasons I loved A Tale Dark and Grimm:

1. The different tales are woven together in an immensely clever way. Who knew Hansel and Gretel were soooo much more than a little boy and girl looking for a sugar fix?
2. The narrator in this book has such great "voice". The narrator had me chuckling throughout the book, even though the stories aren't necessarily of the chuckling nature.
   

That being said, a word of caution: these tales stay more true to Grimm's actual tales - there is not happily ever after and the story can be very dark. Oh, and lots of blood too. As the narrator warns time and again, this story is not for the faint of heart. But the darkness, the fighting, the blood - they're all written with the most amazing language.

If the Newbery is about "distinguished" literature; literature that stands out from the rest of the pack, then A Tale Dark and Grimm most certainly could be a contender.