Read online. ( )

Beautiful book! Marcia Brown's illustrations enriched this classic Anderson story. I was initially curious about the original fairy tale when I spotted the "story inspired by the Snow Queen" in the Frozen (1) credits. However, I didn't actually get around to reading it until a few months after Frozen 2. It was interesting to compare the fairy tale and the movies. ( )

A fairy tale in seven chapters: The devil and/or a troll makes a mirror that only reflects and amplifies bad things, which shatters. A little boy named Kai gets a shard of the mirror in his eye and runs away. His friend Gerda tries to find him but gets stuck at a witch’s house where she forgets about Kai for a bit. Then she hears of a princess who married a man who looked like Kai, but it’s not Kai. Then she meets a little robber girl who has guns for some reason. Gerda rides a reindeer to Lapland. She gets to the Snow Queen’s palace and says the Lord’s Prayer which defeats the Snow Queen and saves Kai through the power of love.

Truly bizarre. You can see why Disney was like “we should make a movie about The Snow Queen” and then trashed absolutely all of it except the reindeer. What is the point of the mirror at all? Kai could have just been kidnapped or run away for some other reason. The religious aspects don’t make any sense, they’re just shoehorned in for hand-waving purposes at the end. Also, the Snow Queen is not the Queen of Snow, she’s the Queen of the Snow Bees, which are snowflakes that look like bees??? It sounds more entertaining than it is.

However, I started listening to this audiobook without even realizing it was narrated by my favorite narrator. What a gift! An extra star for Katy Kellgren. ( )

The Snow Queen, illustrated by Yana Sedova.

Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy-tale, The Snow Queen, in which a young girl sets out to rescue her friend, kidnapped by the titular winter figure, is presented in this picture-book form with the artwork of Russian illustrator Yana Sedova, and the result is simply gorgeous! The text here holds no surprises for one who has read many versions of this tale, but I was pleased with how it read, and that it included the complete story, with all seven parts. Anthea Bell, who is the translator of this edition, always produces something worth reading.

This title, published in 2014, is the fourteenth picture-book version of The Snow Queen that I have read - what can I say? it's one of my favorite Andersen tales, and I like comparing various artists' interpretations of the same story - and it definitely ranks highly in my esteem. I don't know that it is the equal of my favorites - those done by Vladyslav Yerko and Pavel Tatarnikov - but it is lovely. I particularly liked the scenes set in the flower gardens of the old magic-maker who takes Gerda in, as well as those in the Snow Queen's palace. The painting in which the Snow Queen's skirts form her palace was enchanting! I was disappointed that there was no depiction of the little Robber Girl, but other than that I had no criticism to make. Recommended to all fairy-tale lovers, and to anyone who appreciates beautiful picture-books. ( )

The Snow Queen, illustrated by Pavel Tatarnikov.

The thirteenth version of The Snow Queen that I have read, this volume was a distinct pleasure to peruse, with breathtakingly beautiful artwork that held my gaze, and a text that, more than ever, was both poignant and thought-provoking. All of the narrative developments, as well as the overarching themes - the conflict of reason and feeling, between science and faith - were already well familiar to me. Two things struck me, in the course of my reading however, that I do not think I had considered before. The first was the fact that Gerda had red shoes, shoes which she casts away, in her search for Kay. The Snow Queen was first published in December of 1844, a scant few months before the April 1945 publication of another collection containing Andersen's The Red Shoes, in which a young girl is too attached to her footwear, and pays a terrible price for it. It's difficult to think that the contrast between Gerda and Karen (the main figure in The Red Shoes) and the way they behave with regard to their red shoes - perhaps a symbol of sexuality? - isn't deliberate on Andersen's part. After all, part of what gives Gerda her power, according to the narrative, is her "purity and innocence of heart." Does that purity rest, in Andersen's view, on Gerda's rejection of her own sexuality?

Whatever the case might be, this question also touches upon the second thing to strike me, in the course of my reading. Namely, that in addition to whatever else it is, this is a narrative about growing up. Gerda and Kay are children at the beginning of the tale, but by the end they are not. Is Andersen presenting Gerda and Kay as examples of the correct and incorrect way to grow up? The one with feeling, innocence and faith, the other with reason, cold unkindness and math/science? It's a fascinating idea, whatever one thinks of the dichotomies Andersen is creating. Leaving aside these questions of story and text, this version of The Snow Queen is simply beautiful, from an aesthetic perspective. Artistically, this version almost equals (almost, but not quite) the Vladyslav Yerko one in my esteem. Pavel Tatarnikov uses a subtle and muted palette in many scenes, only to break out with vibrant colors in others. His figures are stylized but expressive, his sensibility somewhat surreal, in a way that feels entirely appropriate to the story. My favorite scene, visually speaking, was undoubtedly the one with Gerda and the crow:



In sum: textually dense, with a great deal to interest and entertain in the narrative, and artistically striking, this is a retelling I would highly recommend to all fairy-tale fans, particularly if they love The Snow Queen. ( )