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The Snow Queen
This charming retelling of the classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen is exquisitely complemented by Vladyslav Yerko' magical illustrations. Wrap up warmly to join Gerda on her quest to rescue Kay from the icy clutches of the wicked Snow Queen.
32 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 11, 2020
Edition with illustrations by Bernadette Watts, nice enough.
October 18, 2021
This rating is for the text adapted and abridged by Anthea Bell and illustrated by Bernadette Watts.
January 8, 2019
The Snow Queen, illustrated by Bernadette Watts.
Like the unfortunate version adapted by Naomi Lewis and illustrated by Toma Bogdanovic, this edition of The Snow Queen features a heavily abridged narrative and illustrations that feel as if they belonged to another tale. Prolific translator Anthea Bell, whose faithful interpretations of Andersen have often been used in the North-South editions illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger ( The Little Mermaid , Thumbeline ), puts her hand to the author's longest tale here, but the results are not encouraging.
Although all the major episodes of Andersen's seven-chapter original are retained, so much detail has been elided that the end-result is a text that reads like a rushed summation of events, rather than a story unfolding at its own natural pace. Bernadette Watts, whose artwork appeals to me in its own right, seems the wrong choice for The Snow Queen, with illustrations that are just too sweet for such a strange tale. Somehow, one gets the sense that this edition is seeking to domesticate and tame what is meant to be wild and free. Definitely not one of my favorite retellings of this tale!
Like the unfortunate version adapted by Naomi Lewis and illustrated by Toma Bogdanovic, this edition of The Snow Queen features a heavily abridged narrative and illustrations that feel as if they belonged to another tale. Prolific translator Anthea Bell, whose faithful interpretations of Andersen have often been used in the North-South editions illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger ( The Little Mermaid , Thumbeline ), puts her hand to the author's longest tale here, but the results are not encouraging.
Although all the major episodes of Andersen's seven-chapter original are retained, so much detail has been elided that the end-result is a text that reads like a rushed summation of events, rather than a story unfolding at its own natural pace. Bernadette Watts, whose artwork appeals to me in its own right, seems the wrong choice for The Snow Queen, with illustrations that are just too sweet for such a strange tale. Somehow, one gets the sense that this edition is seeking to domesticate and tame what is meant to be wild and free. Definitely not one of my favorite retellings of this tale!
January 6, 2020
The prologue was weird. There's the Devil with his mirror, imps at the devil's school who go around distorting people and places with it and then they try to go to heaven and taunt God and the angels but the mirror falls and breaks and goes into people's eyes and they see everything distorted. If it goes into your heart it turns it to ice.
This started out as a cross between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and East of the Sun, West of the Moon, but ended up having none of their adventures.
At one point when the reindeer takes her back to the snow queen's realm she's barefoot and cold, and says the Lord's Prayer and is surrounded by angels yet what's depicted on the page are these evil little rodent things with arrows -not bows & arrows, and not spears, just plain arrows - who appear to be snarling and threatening. Certainly not angels who drove the snow away. I thought she was seeing things because of the mirror splinters.
The beginning was so odd and didn't seem to have any relevance in the story after. Idk if it's my memory or this book that's all over the place, but I thought they both got mirror shards in them. And yes, the boy got shards in his heart, but it didn't really affect him the way I thought it had. I thought it changed your vision, yet he wasn't affected the way I thought he'd be.
This book is called the snow queen, yet after her initial appearance when she takes Kay, she isn't seen again. Why did she take Kay? What was she doing with him?
It seemed like she enchanted him, not the splinter.
I thought she'd show up and try to stop them from leaving, but they easily got away. Some threatening evil character she is.
It was odd how she kissed Kay's cheeks, eyes, hands, and feet.
They suddenly grew up as if they didn't notice they were aging before. As if they had aged right when they got home again.
It said they understood the old song 'In the vale grow roses wild, where we meet the Holy Child' but they didn't explain what it meant,& I didn't know what it meant. It seemed like it was religious, about baby Jesus. All it said was that they were grown up but still children at heart, and it was summer.
You know it's not good when you get to the end of a book and go what?! It didn't feel like the end of a book,& I was left feeling gypped on the entire story.
I thought they would get married at least. Otherwise what was the significance of the roses in the window or the hearts over them?
And what about their parents?! Are they at home? Where's the homecoming between them and their kids, who've been gone for, apparently, years?
This was weird. Glass shards coming out eyes, and hearts. That's cringe-worthy to even think of.
It was a bunch of back and forth, going here and there, running into this person, that person. Time flew by with no real concept of it, then all of sudden they're grown up.
I thought it would end with them realizing they loved each other or something.
The prologue seemed to have no bearing on the story, only that Kay had mirror shards in his heart and eye. The imps weren't even in the story after the beginning.
There's some evil characters that could have been a force in the story, the devil, the imps, the snow queen, yet they didn't make an appearance in the story, and didn't offer any real conflict.
Some of the pages were pretty, like the old woman's house in springtime, with the flowering trees and the moon at night, and the blues and greens of the ice palace. That's all this had going for it.
This started out as a cross between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and East of the Sun, West of the Moon, but ended up having none of their adventures.
At one point when the reindeer takes her back to the snow queen's realm she's barefoot and cold, and says the Lord's Prayer and is surrounded by angels yet what's depicted on the page are these evil little rodent things with arrows -not bows & arrows, and not spears, just plain arrows - who appear to be snarling and threatening. Certainly not angels who drove the snow away. I thought she was seeing things because of the mirror splinters.
The beginning was so odd and didn't seem to have any relevance in the story after. Idk if it's my memory or this book that's all over the place, but I thought they both got mirror shards in them. And yes, the boy got shards in his heart, but it didn't really affect him the way I thought it had. I thought it changed your vision, yet he wasn't affected the way I thought he'd be.
This book is called the snow queen, yet after her initial appearance when she takes Kay, she isn't seen again. Why did she take Kay? What was she doing with him?
It seemed like she enchanted him, not the splinter.
I thought she'd show up and try to stop them from leaving, but they easily got away. Some threatening evil character she is.
It was odd how she kissed Kay's cheeks, eyes, hands, and feet.
They suddenly grew up as if they didn't notice they were aging before. As if they had aged right when they got home again.
It said they understood the old song 'In the vale grow roses wild, where we meet the Holy Child' but they didn't explain what it meant,& I didn't know what it meant. It seemed like it was religious, about baby Jesus. All it said was that they were grown up but still children at heart, and it was summer.
You know it's not good when you get to the end of a book and go what?! It didn't feel like the end of a book,& I was left feeling gypped on the entire story.
I thought they would get married at least. Otherwise what was the significance of the roses in the window or the hearts over them?
And what about their parents?! Are they at home? Where's the homecoming between them and their kids, who've been gone for, apparently, years?
This was weird. Glass shards coming out eyes, and hearts. That's cringe-worthy to even think of.
It was a bunch of back and forth, going here and there, running into this person, that person. Time flew by with no real concept of it, then all of sudden they're grown up.
I thought it would end with them realizing they loved each other or something.
The prologue seemed to have no bearing on the story, only that Kay had mirror shards in his heart and eye. The imps weren't even in the story after the beginning.
There's some evil characters that could have been a force in the story, the devil, the imps, the snow queen, yet they didn't make an appearance in the story, and didn't offer any real conflict.
Some of the pages were pretty, like the old woman's house in springtime, with the flowering trees and the moon at night, and the blues and greens of the ice palace. That's all this had going for it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2021
I was in a (religious) lecture where the presenter started with a recap of the magic mirror portion of this fairytale. I was fascinated with that and don't think I've ever heard that bit before. So I put this on hold at the library while sitting right there in that lecture.
When I picked the book up, I did a quick flip through and didn't see the mirror part of the story at all! When I finally sat down to read the book, there on the first page - like the end page where you first open the cover, the other side of the publication information, before the title - was a Prologue that told the mirror story, which is integral to the rest of the story that follows. I found the physical placement rather strange.
I think I've read re-imaginings of this fairytale, but not the real thing. I've read Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and I've seen Disney's Frozen, both of which draw at least a little on this story.
I think I will mainly remember this as the inspiration for the lecture I heard. The overall story is okay. The illustrations were good - I mostly like the colors of them and the non-people elements.
When I picked the book up, I did a quick flip through and didn't see the mirror part of the story at all! When I finally sat down to read the book, there on the first page - like the end page where you first open the cover, the other side of the publication information, before the title - was a Prologue that told the mirror story, which is integral to the rest of the story that follows. I found the physical placement rather strange.
I think I've read re-imaginings of this fairytale, but not the real thing. I've read Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and I've seen Disney's Frozen, both of which draw at least a little on this story.
I think I will mainly remember this as the inspiration for the lecture I heard. The overall story is okay. The illustrations were good - I mostly like the colors of them and the non-people elements.
May 2, 2019
Its odd the Snow Queen dominates the cover, because, except for once, tiny and at a great distance, we don't see her at all in the book itself.
The text is cut down to fit to picture book size, but it helps this is such a physically large book, length by width-wise, allowing a lot of text on each page, but still allowing the pictures to dominate.
The colored pencil drawings work best showing large landscapes, especially the howling winters Gerda has to contend with, the seduction of the forever-summer garden, and the vastness of the Ice Palace. It doesn't work quite as well for interior scenes or characters standing around awkwardly, but the soft colors definitely capture the coziness of the happy ending.
December 20, 2021
Es war sehr schön und hat uns sehr fröhlich gemacht. [Bewertung der Tochter]
April 15, 2021
Of the seven or eight versions of The Snow Queen we've read, the illustrations by Bernadette Watts are my favorite, or definitely in the top two. This version is nice, particularly for younger kids, because it can be read in a single sitting (about 15 minutes) and the illustrations are beautiful, but then some of the details to which I've become attached in reading other versions are not present in this book, such as Kay trying to say the Lord's Prayer but only remembering the multiplication tables after he gets parts of the evil mirror in his eye and heart, or that when he's first affected, Gerda starts crying because he's picking at and destroying their precious roses and calls their precious picture book "babyish", that sort of thing. I might be a bit fuzzy on which details are included or left out in this version because we've read so many, but bottom line is that this story stands on its own, but know that some of the rich details from the original are left out. Illustrations are beautiful.
February 15, 2014
After seeing the movie Frozen, I decided it would be interesting to compare various versions of The Snow Queen. Now, after having looked at three different picture book versions, I have decided that I really don't particularly like the story. The various vignettes of action along the way just don't seem to hang together very well. It reminds me of the way some children write: first this happened, then this happened, then this happened, and finally this (slightly more interesting thing) happened.
I was going to read some of the longer book adaptations of the story, but I am reconsidering the idea now. I think I will move on to something else. So many books; so little time.
I was going to read some of the longer book adaptations of the story, but I am reconsidering the idea now. I think I will move on to something else. So many books; so little time.
December 7, 2008
This is a great story with an underlying moral thread. It is a story of redemption as Kay gets a piece of the Devil's mirror stuck in his eye and in his heart and then Gerda searches for him and helps him become whole again. It's also a story of the courage of Gerda and the love she had that helped her pursue her friend to the ends of the earth.
Due to the other review of this version of the story, though, I am going to be sure to read it again in the Complete works of Hans Christian Andersen to see what I may have missed!
I also really loved the drawings.
Due to the other review of this version of the story, though, I am going to be sure to read it again in the Complete works of Hans Christian Andersen to see what I may have missed!
I also really loved the drawings.
February 2, 2018
North South Books publish some of the most beautiful and cherished fairytales, as well as other charming tales from numerous countries in the world. This title is no exception. It is a gorgeous adaptation of the time loved tale of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen". Bernadette Watts' exquisite illustrations make this a beautiful book to add to a personal or public library, where children and adults alike can escape into the story.
May 19, 2016
I probably took out this book from the library more times than I could count. It was just so gorgeously illustrated. When I think about the actual story, I'm not sure why I kept coming back to it. I often have fonder memories of Andersen than the reality, which is his stories are pretty dark and twisted.
September 3, 2021
Now, this is more like it. Though extensively abridged for this picture-book retelling, it retains (almost all) the most important bits and hits nearly all the highlights. Most importantly, it keeps true to the spirit of the story and doesn't attempt to secularize it like *cough* Certain Other Retellings. The only 'bummer' here is the complete omission of Grandmother.
January 16, 2008
The pictures were lovely, but the interpretation of the story was severely lacking fluidity of language. I have read much better versions in Hans Christian Andersen collections. It also seemed to be missing some crucial aspects of the story in favor of a stilted streamlining of the text. I'd pass.
December 9, 2014
Third picture book version of this fairytale I've read, and so far my favorite.
December 11, 2015
A little above Alana's level but fun to read. Hard to believe this story was the inspiration for Disney's Frozen - it's so different and the snow queen is NOT a nice character!
January 8, 2016
A lovely adaptation with incredible illustrations.
September 15, 2019
I love this tale!
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September 25, 2024Very amusing that the Snow Queen on the cover does not appear in the book.
February 4, 2025
Friendship as deep as the snow in Finland 🇫🇮
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews