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Summary
Summary
Gerda faces many perils as she tries to save her friend, Kay, imprisoned in the Snow Queen's ice palace. Recommended.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1 Up This classic Andersen story has been freely and beautifully translated by Le Gallienne, who also translated his Seven Tales (Harper, 1959; o.p.), among others. This edition is standard book size, and while not presented as a picture book, has 17 single and 6 double-page spreads of full-color paintings. Those of the Snow Queen's horses, sleigh and castle are especially atmospheric; human figure proportions throughout tend to be awkward. While minor changes have been made in the text (e.g., two of the flowers' song-stories are omitted), the translation has an immediacy that will catch children no matter how familiar with the tale. ``Stop that sniveling!,'' the robber girl says here, whereas Haugaard ( Hans Andersen: His Classic Fairy Tales Doubleday, 1978), uses ``I don't like all your tears.'' Again, with equally good, different stylistic emphasis, he renders the description of the menacing snowflakes as ``All of the snowflakes were brilliantly white and terribly alive''; and she, ``All were dazzling white, all were horribly alive.'' A most readable, attractive book. Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Lib . (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lynch (Melisande; The Steadfast Tin Soldier) brings exquisite grace and elegance to his illustrations of Andersen's classic story of the power of love to heal even the most hardened and icy heart. The design is impressive: delicate black lines frame the four columns on each spread while the art varies not only in placement and size but also in style. A Victorian garland of flowers circling the text of Gerda's prayer is juxtaposed with an Andrew Wyeth-like panel depicting the snow falling on Kay's sleeve, while the wicked goblins and their distorting mirror recall Rackham or even Hogarth. Lynch sometimes departs from the text with intriguing results. For example, the Snow Queen's guards, described by Andersen as ``great ugly porcupines, others like snakes rolled into knots with their heads peering out, and others like little fat bears with bristling hair,'' are pictured as splintered icy dragons or gargoyles under attack from triumphant golden angels in Roman armor. Retold from the original English version by Caroline Peachy, this narrative omits some of the excursions found in the original, but Lynch's Snow Queen remains a dazzling and irresistible enchantress. Ages 6-10. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Lynch's well-executed artwork enhances the drama of Andersen's tale about the power of love and innocence. The soft colors of the double-page spreads, panel illustrations, and the vignettes complement the Old World setting of the classic story. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The Snow Queen is not one of Andersen's more accessible nursery tales, and perhaps it would be better to wait until a child is ready for the original than to disturb the particularly deliberate blend of image and signification that makes this story what it is. With very little tampering, what we end up with here is a seemingly arbitrary mixture of sentimentality and standoffish symbols--made all the more artificial and remote by Le Cain's illustrations, rich and strange as his colors and compositions might be. Marcia Brown's black-and-white drawings for the 1972 Keigwin translation are less obtrusive, more sensitive, and better keyed to the moods and meanings of the story. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this long retelling of a familiar fairy tale, Lewis doesn't scrub out any of the strange, surreal aspects and psychological underpinnings of Andersen's original. She leaves in, for instance, the opening account of the breaking of the devil's magic mirror, which sends splinters of discord and discontent into humanity. She also does not try to smooth any of the seemingly abrupt jumps in the story of Gerda's search for her little friend, Kay. Birmingham's illustrations echo the underlying strangeness of the story. Some pages are fuzzy and impressionistic, while other, less snowbound scenes are in appropriately sharper focus. Her Snow Queen is not at all evil and cold looking but young and beautiful. Plenty of versions of the Snow Queen exist. This features a compelling translation and a number of striking illustrations.--Morning, Todd Copyright 2009 Booklist