{stand alone; children's, fairytale retelling, magic, The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Anderson, fables, fairytales}(2011)

This was another book bullet for an author for me (LT members discussing other books of hers) but it might be one of those cases where I raised my expectations too high whereas if I had read it cold I'd have appreciated it more.

Hmm; I'm not quite sure what to think about this one. It was a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen and (though I haven't read it in quite a while) those elements were all there as I remembered them. The protagonists are Hazel (who is adopted and whose father has recently moved away from the family home) and her best friend Jack (whose mother seems to be suffering from depression), both in the fifth grade at their local elementary school. Both very real children who connect with each other as with no-one else because they both have wonderfully active imaginations (Hazel's parents came to get her in a rocket ship, for example) and no-one else seems to willing or able to live in the same worlds as they do.

I liked Hazel's mum; she's obviously in a difficult situation and also doing her best to understand and help Hazel. I suppose I'm at that point in my life that, though I can see the magic, I empathise with parents - but I felt that maybe I was therefore on the 'other side' from Hazel and Jack which made me feel vaguely guilty (scratchy?) while reading this story.

The story is told in the third person from Hazel's point of view. She doesn't feel as though she fits in, especially as she's recently had to transfer from a more permissive school, but Jack is her best friend and next door neighbour though he's not in the same class. They have adventures in imaginary lands together and at school he plays with her at every recess - until something gets in his eye and he changes. And then he disappears because he's been whisked away by the Snow Queen. Hazel, with her vivid imagination, is the only one who can see through the magic and rescue him but first she has to navigate through the woods (which are not the woods of her Minnesota town) to the Snow Queen's palace.

Hazel stepped into the woods gingerly, expecting to land in a thick cushion of snow. So she stumbled when her foot went all the way to solid ground. It was not winter in the woods—at least in these woods.

As she goes through the woods she encounters familiar (to us) folk tales and fairy tales but as she goes further they become twisted away from the ones that we're used to. (Maybe these were the 'breadcrumbs'? As Hazel noted, there weren't any others):

Hazel watched the face of the compass as the needle wavered slightly, as if afraid to make too firm a commitment. But it was pointing roughly the way she was heading. Hazel was going north. Her heart lifted a little. This might be a magic woods, but there was still a north here. It was a place, like any other. The compass would guide her to Jack, and then guide her home. Who needed breadcrumbs?
She had a compass. She had a direction. She had a path. She knew where north was. So Hazel stepped on the path and headed forward.

And that was the point at which I got confused. Was it supposed to be familiar or sunder expectations? And if the second, was it supposed to be scary? Given that it's a children's book, probably not - but I felt that I was missing something, maybe an allegory, and I couldn't work out what. I felt that the ending resolved some things (and it looks like Hazel is starting to make other friends) but left a lot of questions open.

(February 2024)
3-3.5 stars ( )

Middle-grade Snow Queen retelling (not Hansel and Gretel, as I first assumed from the title)

Hazel and Jack have been best friends since they were six, but now things are changing. Jack won't talk to her anymore. Her mom says that just happens between friends sometimes, but Hazel knows there must be something deeper going on. Especially when Jack vanishes one day. So Hazel ventures into the woods on a rescue mission to save Jack from the clutches of the white witch, and discovers a magical and dangerous world she was not prepared for.

It's a story about friendship and growing up, and living on the border between fantasy and reality. There are so many beautiful descriptions of snowy scenery and characters' feelings that you can't help but be absorbed into the story. And there are lots of fairy tale elements mixed in seamlessly! ( )

What do you do when your best friend starts to act strange and then suddenly disappears? And no one around you seems to notice? You go on a quest to get him back, you follow the breadcrumbs as far as they lead you, you try to stay safe in the dangerous forest. A fairytale that manages to keep the traditional mysteries, while speaking with a crisp and believable modern voice. ( )

3 1/2 stars ( )

children's fiction; fantasy/fairytale. A modern version of "the Snow Queen" with the heroine being an adopted 11-year-old from India (whose dad has left and is remarrying); the rescuee is her best friend, a boy whose mom suffers from severe depression. Numerous references to C.S.Lewis, Tolkien, Gaiman's Coraline and L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, among lots of fairytale-type creatures and beings. A really well told story; recommended for curling up with on a cold winter night. ( )