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Snow White
"Phelan's noir-esque adaptation of the classic fairy tale is atmospheric, clever, and touching. . . . A stunning, genre-bending graphic novel." -- School Library Journal (starred review)
The curtain rises on New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words: "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL."
The curtain rises on New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words: "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL."
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2016
56 people are currently reading
8849 people want to read
About the author
Matt Phelan
49 books273 followersMatt Phelan made his illustrating debut with Betty G. Birney’s The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster). Since then he has illustrated many picture books and novels for young readers, including Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli (Dial), Very Hairy Bear by Alice Schertle (Harcourt), and The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (Simon & Schuster) winner of the 2007 Newbery Medal.
Matt studied film and theater in college with the goal of one day writing and directing movies. But his first love was always drawing, and the more he saw the wonderful world of children’s books, the more he realized that this was the place for him. Being an illustrator is in many ways like being an actor, director, cinematographer, costumer, and set designer rolled into one.
Matt writes: “I have a fascination with the decade of the 1930s. The movies were learning to talk (and in the case of King Kong, growl), the music was beginning to swing, and the nation was thrown into tremendous turmoil. On one hand, you see a level of suffering documented in the dramatic and gritty photography of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. On the other hand, consider what the American public was flocking to see in the movie theaters: the glamour and grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in a series of perfect musicals. For my first book as both writer and illustrator (coming in 2009 by Candlewick Press), I naturally gravitated to this complex decade, specifically the strange world of the Dust Bowl.”
Matt studied film and theater in college with the goal of one day writing and directing movies. But his first love was always drawing, and the more he saw the wonderful world of children’s books, the more he realized that this was the place for him. Being an illustrator is in many ways like being an actor, director, cinematographer, costumer, and set designer rolled into one.
Matt writes: “I have a fascination with the decade of the 1930s. The movies were learning to talk (and in the case of King Kong, growl), the music was beginning to swing, and the nation was thrown into tremendous turmoil. On one hand, you see a level of suffering documented in the dramatic and gritty photography of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. On the other hand, consider what the American public was flocking to see in the movie theaters: the glamour and grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in a series of perfect musicals. For my first book as both writer and illustrator (coming in 2009 by Candlewick Press), I naturally gravitated to this complex decade, specifically the strange world of the Dust Bowl.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,404 reviews
May 18, 2021
This book was a gorgeous and creative 1930s (20s? 40s?) retelling of Snow White. I'm baffled that the cover for this does NOT match the art inside and wish that it did better justice to the story, which was gorgeously portrayed even if it did go by fast and some parts might be a tad confusing. I'm happy I read it though and would definitely recommend it if you see it at a library or used bookstore.
November 18, 2019
Matt is retelling Snow White in the 1920s or 30s modern US. His drawings are mostly black and white. The artwork is lovely. This is a retelling of the fairytale. I am assuming he is expecting his reader to know the fairy tale. He glosses over many plot points accept the bigs ones. I think if you have seen or read the fairy tale, you would be lost in this story. It wouldn't make sense. Since, as a reader we do know the story by heart, he can gloss over little details and present the story sparsely.
Snow's mother-in-law is an actress and the 7 dwarves are now the 7 orphans or something. I don't get who the prince is. I was an the verge of giving this 2 stars, but I decided that by using our knowledge of the story it was worth 3. This is close to be a wordless story.
I have to say that it's not my favorite retelling or story. I'm sure people love this, but it did not wow me in any way.
Snow's mother-in-law is an actress and the 7 dwarves are now the 7 orphans or something. I don't get who the prince is. I was an the verge of giving this 2 stars, but I decided that by using our knowledge of the story it was worth 3. This is close to be a wordless story.
I have to say that it's not my favorite retelling or story. I'm sure people love this, but it did not wow me in any way.
November 18, 2016
I’d have said it couldn’t be done. The Snow White fairytale has been told and retold and overdone to death until there’s not much left to do but forget about it entirely. Not that every graphic novel out there has to be based on an original idea. And not that the world is fed up with fairytales now (it isn’t). But when I heard about Matt Phelan’s Snow White: A Graphic Novel I was willing to give it a chance simply because I trusted its creator and not its material. The crazy thing is that even before I picked it up, it threw me for a loop. I heard that the story was recast in 1920s/ early-1930s Depression-era New York City. For longer than I’d care to admit I just sort of sat there, wracking my brain and trying desperately to remember anything I’d ever seen that was similar. I’ve seen fairytales set during the Depression before, but never Snow White. Then I picked the book up and was struck immediately by how beautiful it was. Finally I read through it and almost every element clicked into place like the gears of a clock. I know Matt Phelan has won a Scott O’Dell Award for The Storm in the Barn and I know his books get far and wide acclaim. Forget all that. This book is his piece de resistance. A bit of fairytale telling, to lure in the kids, and a whole whopping dollop of cinematic noir, deft storytelling, and clever creation, all set against a white, wintery backdrop.
The hardened detective thinks he’s seen it all, but that was before he encountered the corpse in the window of a department store, laid out like she was sleeping. No one could account for her. No one except maybe the boy keeping watch from across the street. When the detective asks for the story he doesn’t get what he wants, but we, the readers, do. Back in time we zip to when a little girl lost her mother to illness and later her father fell desperately in love with a dancer widely proclaimed to be the “Queen of the Follies.” Sent away to a boarding school, the girl returns years later when her father has died and his will leaves all his money in a trust to Snow. Blinded by rage, the stepmother (who is not innocent in her husband’s death) calls in a favor with a former stagehand to do away with her pretty impediment, but he can’t do the deed. What follows is a gripping tale the seven street kids that take Snow under their wing (or is it the other way around?), some stage make-up, a syringe, an apple, and an ending so sweet you could have gotten it out of a fairytale.
Let’s get back to this notion I have that the idea of setting Snow White during the Depression in New York is original. It honestly goes above and beyond the era. I could swear I’d never read or seen a version where the seven dwarfs were seven street kids. Or where the evil stepmother was a star of the Ziegfeld Follies. Snow’s run from Mr. Hunt is through Central Park through various shantytowns and he presents the stepmother with a heart that's a pig’s procured at a butcher. Even making her glass coffin a window at Macy’s, or the magic mirror an insidious ticker tape, feels original and perfectly in keeping with the setting. You begin to wonder how no one else has ever thought to do this before.
You’d also be forgiven for reading the book, walking away, giving it a year, and then remembering it as wordless. It isn’t, but Phelan’s choosy with his wordplay this time. Always a fan of silent sequences, I was struck by the times we do see words. Whether it’s the instructions on the ticker tape (a case could easily be made that these instructions are entirely in the increasingly deranged step-mother’s mind), Snow’s speech about how snow beautifies everything, or the moment when each one of the boys tells her his name, Phelan’s judiciousness makes the book powerful time and time again. Can you imagine what it would have felt like if there had been an omniscient narrator? The skin on the back of my neck shudders at the thought.
For all that the words are few and far between, you often get a very good sense of the characters anyway. Snow’s a little bit Maria Von Trapp and a little bit Mary Poppins to the boys. I would have liked Phelan to give her a bit more agency than, say, Disney did. For example, when her step-mother informs her, after the reading of her father’s will, that her old room is no longer her own, I initially misread Snow’s response to be that she was going out to find a new home on her own. Instead, she’s just going for a walk and gets tracked down by Mr. Hunt in the process. It felt like a missed beat, but not something that sinks the ship. Contrast that with the evil stepmother. Without ever being graphic about it, not even once, this lady just exudes sex. It’s kind of hard to explain. There’s that moment when the old stagehand remembers when he once turned his own body into a step stool so that she could make her grand entrance during a show. There’s also her first entrance in the Follies, fully clothed but so luscious you can understand why Snow’s father would fall for her. The book toys with the notion that the man is bewitched rather than acting of his own accord, but it never gives you an answer to that question one way or another.
Lest we forget, the city itself is also a character. Having lived in NYC for eleven years, I’ve always been very touchy about how it’s portrayed in books for kids. When contemporary books are filled with alleyways it makes me mighty suspicious. Old timey fare gets a pass, though. Clever too of Phelan to set the book during the winter months. As Snow says at one point, “snow covers everything and makes the entire world beautiful . . . This city is beautiful, too. It has its own magic.” So we get Art Deco interiors, and snow covered city tops seen out of huge plate glass windows. We get theaters full of gilt and splendor and the poverty of Hoovervilles in the park, burning trashcans and all. It felt good. It felt right. It felt authentic. I could live there again.
We live in a blessed time for graphic novels. With the recent win of what may well be the first graphic novel to win a National Book Award, they are respected, flourishing, and widely read. Yet for all that, the graphic novels written for children are not always particularly beautiful to the eye. Aesthetics take time. A beautiful comic is also a lot more time consuming than one done freehand in Photoshop. All the more true if that comic has been done almost entirely in watercolors as Phelan has here. I don’t think that there’s a soul alive who could pick up this book and not find it beautiful. What’s interesting is how Phelan balances the Art Deco motifs with the noir-ish scenes and shots. When we think of noir graphic novels we tend to think of those intensely violent and very adult classics like Sin City. Middle grade noir is almost unheard of at this point. Here, the noir is in the tone and feel of the story. It’s far more than just the black and white images, though those help too in their way.
The limited color palette, similar in many ways to The Storm in the Barn with how it uses color, here invokes the movies of the past. He always has a reason, that Matt Phelan. His judicious use of color is sparing and soaked with meaning. The drops of blood, often referred to in the original fairytale as having sprung from the queen’s finger when she pricked herself while sewing, is re-imagined as drops of bright red blood on a handkerchief and the pure white snow, a sure sign of influenza. Red can be lips or an apple or cheeks in the cold. Phelan draws scenes in blue or brown or black and white to indicate when you’re watching a memory or a different moment in time, and it’s very effective and easy to follow. And then there’s the last scene, done entirely in warm, gentle, full-color watercolors. It does the heart good to see.
The thing about Matt Phelan is that he rarely does the same story twice. About the only thing you can count on with him is that he loves history and the past. Indeed, between showing off a young Buster Keaton ( Bluffton) and a ravaged Dust Bowl setting (The Storm in the Barn) it’s possible “Snow White” is just an extension of his favorite era. As much a paean to movies as it is fairytales and graphic novels, Phelan limits his word count and pulls off a tale with truly striking visuals and killer emotional resonance. I don’t think I’ve ever actually enjoyed the story of Snow White until now. Hand this book to graphic novel fans, fairytale fans, and any kid who’s keen on good triumphing over evil. There might be one or two such children out there. This book is for them.
For ages 9-12.
The hardened detective thinks he’s seen it all, but that was before he encountered the corpse in the window of a department store, laid out like she was sleeping. No one could account for her. No one except maybe the boy keeping watch from across the street. When the detective asks for the story he doesn’t get what he wants, but we, the readers, do. Back in time we zip to when a little girl lost her mother to illness and later her father fell desperately in love with a dancer widely proclaimed to be the “Queen of the Follies.” Sent away to a boarding school, the girl returns years later when her father has died and his will leaves all his money in a trust to Snow. Blinded by rage, the stepmother (who is not innocent in her husband’s death) calls in a favor with a former stagehand to do away with her pretty impediment, but he can’t do the deed. What follows is a gripping tale the seven street kids that take Snow under their wing (or is it the other way around?), some stage make-up, a syringe, an apple, and an ending so sweet you could have gotten it out of a fairytale.
Let’s get back to this notion I have that the idea of setting Snow White during the Depression in New York is original. It honestly goes above and beyond the era. I could swear I’d never read or seen a version where the seven dwarfs were seven street kids. Or where the evil stepmother was a star of the Ziegfeld Follies. Snow’s run from Mr. Hunt is through Central Park through various shantytowns and he presents the stepmother with a heart that's a pig’s procured at a butcher. Even making her glass coffin a window at Macy’s, or the magic mirror an insidious ticker tape, feels original and perfectly in keeping with the setting. You begin to wonder how no one else has ever thought to do this before.
You’d also be forgiven for reading the book, walking away, giving it a year, and then remembering it as wordless. It isn’t, but Phelan’s choosy with his wordplay this time. Always a fan of silent sequences, I was struck by the times we do see words. Whether it’s the instructions on the ticker tape (a case could easily be made that these instructions are entirely in the increasingly deranged step-mother’s mind), Snow’s speech about how snow beautifies everything, or the moment when each one of the boys tells her his name, Phelan’s judiciousness makes the book powerful time and time again. Can you imagine what it would have felt like if there had been an omniscient narrator? The skin on the back of my neck shudders at the thought.
For all that the words are few and far between, you often get a very good sense of the characters anyway. Snow’s a little bit Maria Von Trapp and a little bit Mary Poppins to the boys. I would have liked Phelan to give her a bit more agency than, say, Disney did. For example, when her step-mother informs her, after the reading of her father’s will, that her old room is no longer her own, I initially misread Snow’s response to be that she was going out to find a new home on her own. Instead, she’s just going for a walk and gets tracked down by Mr. Hunt in the process. It felt like a missed beat, but not something that sinks the ship. Contrast that with the evil stepmother. Without ever being graphic about it, not even once, this lady just exudes sex. It’s kind of hard to explain. There’s that moment when the old stagehand remembers when he once turned his own body into a step stool so that she could make her grand entrance during a show. There’s also her first entrance in the Follies, fully clothed but so luscious you can understand why Snow’s father would fall for her. The book toys with the notion that the man is bewitched rather than acting of his own accord, but it never gives you an answer to that question one way or another.
Lest we forget, the city itself is also a character. Having lived in NYC for eleven years, I’ve always been very touchy about how it’s portrayed in books for kids. When contemporary books are filled with alleyways it makes me mighty suspicious. Old timey fare gets a pass, though. Clever too of Phelan to set the book during the winter months. As Snow says at one point, “snow covers everything and makes the entire world beautiful . . . This city is beautiful, too. It has its own magic.” So we get Art Deco interiors, and snow covered city tops seen out of huge plate glass windows. We get theaters full of gilt and splendor and the poverty of Hoovervilles in the park, burning trashcans and all. It felt good. It felt right. It felt authentic. I could live there again.
We live in a blessed time for graphic novels. With the recent win of what may well be the first graphic novel to win a National Book Award, they are respected, flourishing, and widely read. Yet for all that, the graphic novels written for children are not always particularly beautiful to the eye. Aesthetics take time. A beautiful comic is also a lot more time consuming than one done freehand in Photoshop. All the more true if that comic has been done almost entirely in watercolors as Phelan has here. I don’t think that there’s a soul alive who could pick up this book and not find it beautiful. What’s interesting is how Phelan balances the Art Deco motifs with the noir-ish scenes and shots. When we think of noir graphic novels we tend to think of those intensely violent and very adult classics like Sin City. Middle grade noir is almost unheard of at this point. Here, the noir is in the tone and feel of the story. It’s far more than just the black and white images, though those help too in their way.
The limited color palette, similar in many ways to The Storm in the Barn with how it uses color, here invokes the movies of the past. He always has a reason, that Matt Phelan. His judicious use of color is sparing and soaked with meaning. The drops of blood, often referred to in the original fairytale as having sprung from the queen’s finger when she pricked herself while sewing, is re-imagined as drops of bright red blood on a handkerchief and the pure white snow, a sure sign of influenza. Red can be lips or an apple or cheeks in the cold. Phelan draws scenes in blue or brown or black and white to indicate when you’re watching a memory or a different moment in time, and it’s very effective and easy to follow. And then there’s the last scene, done entirely in warm, gentle, full-color watercolors. It does the heart good to see.
The thing about Matt Phelan is that he rarely does the same story twice. About the only thing you can count on with him is that he loves history and the past. Indeed, between showing off a young Buster Keaton ( Bluffton) and a ravaged Dust Bowl setting (The Storm in the Barn) it’s possible “Snow White” is just an extension of his favorite era. As much a paean to movies as it is fairytales and graphic novels, Phelan limits his word count and pulls off a tale with truly striking visuals and killer emotional resonance. I don’t think I’ve ever actually enjoyed the story of Snow White until now. Hand this book to graphic novel fans, fairytale fans, and any kid who’s keen on good triumphing over evil. There might be one or two such children out there. This book is for them.
For ages 9-12.
October 7, 2017
I may have sighed when I opened this one. My son has been watching Once Upon a Time on Netflix and I’m kinda all set on Snow White these days. This, however, is a creative retelling of the original tale. Once the dwarfs appear, the story takes on a warmth I never realized from the original. Unique and quite well done. 4.5 stars
October 8, 2020
Gorgeous retelling of Snow White set in Gilded Age New York City!
Actually I came across this book while I was browsing something else, and the summary intrigued me. Snow White isn't a favorite fairy tale of mine (that honor goes to Beauty and the Beast), so to see it combined with a historical period I am extremely interested in??? HELL YEAH
The art style is mostly black and white, with some color at the end. It was a little odd at the beginning to read minimal text, but really works for the time period and noir vibes. And the ending made my heart melt!
Actually I came across this book while I was browsing something else, and the summary intrigued me. Snow White isn't a favorite fairy tale of mine (that honor goes to Beauty and the Beast), so to see it combined with a historical period I am extremely interested in??? HELL YEAH
The art style is mostly black and white, with some color at the end. It was a little odd at the beginning to read minimal text, but really works for the time period and noir vibes. And the ending made my heart melt!
September 16, 2016
I am a fan of the rich, sensitive, image-based storytelling of Matt Phelan. He’s nostalgic, he loves history, and loves to create historical fiction, rendering stories with such quiet intensity it is hard to think most video-gaming children will appreciate them, but I think of them as all ages picturebooks and graphic novels. Not easily categorizable, which is good, he’s himself, this Phelan. Who is almost equally tween and teen, illustrator and graphic novelist? Check out Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton (set in Western Michigan in 1908); The Storm in the Barn, set in the Dust Bowl and Around the World, set in the late nineteenth century.
Snow White is a revision of the familiar fairy tale, which you don’t hav to have read to appreciate it as a story, but if you have read it, it might enrich this telling, because Phelan gives you few words. He lets the images do most of the telling, many silent pages, which I love, love, love.
The story is set in New York City, 1928, Jazz Age. Samantha White is our Snow; Her Dad dies in the stock market crash time and wicked step mom is no help, of course. Seven street urchins are the dwarves, protectors. The feel of it is early talky black white films, or silent films, with Phelan’s gorgeous signature pencil drawings and watercolors. It’s a short telling, but not slight; it’s rich and evokes good and evil in a time of financial collapse, as we have experienced recently, and will again. In other words, it’s historical fiction, which is also at its best about now. Snow White is magic, it’s fantasy, but Phelan spins this magic, his magic, in the context of a world we know and recognize, with emotional resonance. Lovely.
Snow White is a revision of the familiar fairy tale, which you don’t hav to have read to appreciate it as a story, but if you have read it, it might enrich this telling, because Phelan gives you few words. He lets the images do most of the telling, many silent pages, which I love, love, love.
The story is set in New York City, 1928, Jazz Age. Samantha White is our Snow; Her Dad dies in the stock market crash time and wicked step mom is no help, of course. Seven street urchins are the dwarves, protectors. The feel of it is early talky black white films, or silent films, with Phelan’s gorgeous signature pencil drawings and watercolors. It’s a short telling, but not slight; it’s rich and evokes good and evil in a time of financial collapse, as we have experienced recently, and will again. In other words, it’s historical fiction, which is also at its best about now. Snow White is magic, it’s fantasy, but Phelan spins this magic, his magic, in the context of a world we know and recognize, with emotional resonance. Lovely.
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February 11, 2021
snow white in film noir aesthetic/1920s setting? what can i say but ✨vibes✨
we do love books that can be read in less than an hour. especially when we haven’t read anything for, like, a week.
ohh yeah, i do be vibin in terms of reading goals over here. doing just great. heh. anyways.
this is a retelling of snow white that u really shouldn’t call a retelling because it’s more of a “resetting” because, like, the only thing they really changed is the setting. that's literally it. like, sure, why not.
but i digress. overall, i like the vibe. and the best part? it took me like 15 minutes to read.
tl;dr: we love short books here. also, we love fairy tales too, and film noir, sooooo yeah. it’s pretty much vibin.
we do love books that can be read in less than an hour. especially when we haven’t read anything for, like, a week.
ohh yeah, i do be vibin in terms of reading goals over here. doing just great. heh. anyways.
this is a retelling of snow white that u really shouldn’t call a retelling because it’s more of a “resetting” because, like, the only thing they really changed is the setting. that's literally it. like, sure, why not.
but i digress. overall, i like the vibe. and the best part? it took me like 15 minutes to read.
tl;dr: we love short books here. also, we love fairy tales too, and film noir, sooooo yeah. it’s pretty much vibin.
December 21, 2024
Generally I am not a fan of graphic novels, albeit on limited exposure, but I am a fan of Matt Phelan, having enjoyed his Bluffton: My Summers with Buster. My review is here.
True to the story of Buster Keaton’s adolescent summers at the vaudevillian boarding house handy to the shores of both Lake Muskegon and Lake Michigan, the graphics take us on rambles through the countryside, endless games of baseball, early infatuations and a suggestion of The Great Stone Face to come.
Here Phelan updates and re-locates the Snow White fairy tale to New York City after the Great War, on into the Depression and beyond. Snow White is the beautiful daughter of a successful investor, who sadly widowed, becomes besotted by a Ziegfeld girl, who rapidly assumes the role of step mother. The seven dwarves have become, rather less successfully, homeless boys, remarkably like the dead end kids.
The story is imaginatively retold with impressive artwork subtle in its almost mono chromatic sketchiness. The highlight is the graphic fate of the stepmother atop the building where she first found fame, forever linked thereafter to the name Ziegfeld. Some of the new ideas don’t work as well as others: a ticker tape machine to convey messages as to who is the most beautiful of all, and the hunter is a somewhat nebulous character. Overall though, pretty good.
True to the story of Buster Keaton’s adolescent summers at the vaudevillian boarding house handy to the shores of both Lake Muskegon and Lake Michigan, the graphics take us on rambles through the countryside, endless games of baseball, early infatuations and a suggestion of The Great Stone Face to come.
Here Phelan updates and re-locates the Snow White fairy tale to New York City after the Great War, on into the Depression and beyond. Snow White is the beautiful daughter of a successful investor, who sadly widowed, becomes besotted by a Ziegfeld girl, who rapidly assumes the role of step mother. The seven dwarves have become, rather less successfully, homeless boys, remarkably like the dead end kids.
The story is imaginatively retold with impressive artwork subtle in its almost mono chromatic sketchiness. The highlight is the graphic fate of the stepmother atop the building where she first found fame, forever linked thereafter to the name Ziegfeld. Some of the new ideas don’t work as well as others: a ticker tape machine to convey messages as to who is the most beautiful of all, and the hunter is a somewhat nebulous character. Overall though, pretty good.
February 21, 2017
This story was very short. It had very minimal dialogue and this made the story hard to follow, even though there were plenty of pictures. It just made the story feel sort of choppy. However, the art was very beautiful, so that helped bump the rating up just a little bit.
August 6, 2016
I was convinced for about 2/3rds of this book that it would be a 3-star read, but it won me over in the end.
A beautiful, impressionistic retelling of the classic fairy-tale, set in depression-era NY.
I loved, SO MUCH, the recasting of Snow White's 7 Dwarves. I don't want to say too much, because spoilers. But it was a great choice.
The feminist in me wishes that there could have been a retelling of the saving of Snow, but I guess we'll just chalk it up to magic and leave it.
The wavy, watercolor art of the book is beautiful and creates a dream-like atmosphere. In some scenes, it was frustrating because I was unsure of what I was seeing or why. But, dreams are like that, I guess. On the whole, it works beautifully.
I would recommend this for any fans of fairy tale retellings. Safe for all ages.
A beautiful, impressionistic retelling of the classic fairy-tale, set in depression-era NY.
I loved, SO MUCH, the recasting of Snow White's 7 Dwarves. I don't want to say too much, because spoilers. But it was a great choice.
The feminist in me wishes that there could have been a retelling of the saving of Snow, but I guess we'll just chalk it up to magic and leave it.
The wavy, watercolor art of the book is beautiful and creates a dream-like atmosphere. In some scenes, it was frustrating because I was unsure of what I was seeing or why. But, dreams are like that, I guess. On the whole, it works beautifully.
I would recommend this for any fans of fairy tale retellings. Safe for all ages.
September 11, 2018
I read this at the library. Very interesting illustrations and a fun twist on the classic story! Unfortunately, since it is in the film noir style, some of the illustrations are a little graphic and scary. (It may also be closer to the Grimm version than the Disney one, which does make a difference.) ;) The equivalent of the seven dwarves were sooo cute!
October 11, 2016
A fairly straight-forward retelling of Snow White, set in the late 1920s. The illustrations are beautiful, and the whole is very sparing on dialog. Interestingly, Phelan chose to borrow a lot from Disney's version, enough so that it almost reads as an adaptation of an adaptation at times.
June 2, 2016
This one is really hard to rate it because while I really enjoyed the graphic novel, I also think it needed more substance.
a better review to possibly come in the future?
a better review to possibly come in the future?
January 5, 2017
I'm not sure what I expected when I picked up this graphic novel, but it wasn't what I got. I love the art, and the setting of this classic story in New York City, circa 1928, is a brilliant idea. The plot does not stray far from the Disney adaptation, and the casting of Snow and the seven street urchins was quite fun. There is so little dialog, that this might almost be a wordless picture book, and while the art is wonderful, I found the story itself just OK. So, 4 stars for the art, and 2 for the story, averages out at 3.
February 7, 2017
2.5 out of 5
For a retelling of Snow White, I expected more. It's basically the same Disneyfied version (hapless heroine and happily ever after included) in the new setting (New York City in 1920s-1930s).
Although twists on the glass coffin as and the seven dwarfs as were quite clever, other twists didn't really work for me . And is it just me who thinks it's rather weird that ?
I know this graphic novel is getting a lot of praise for the illustrations but, unfortunately, even this aspect of Snow White didn't impress me that much.
Yes, the artwork fits the mood of the 1930s NYC well and it does have a cinematic feel. Oh, and I do love the use of color:
But I guess, Phelan's illustrations in Snow White are just too sketchy for my taste. Since there aren't many words used, I would appreciate more detail to invite my eyes to linger a little.
For a retelling of Snow White, I expected more. It's basically the same Disneyfied version (hapless heroine and happily ever after included) in the new setting (New York City in 1920s-1930s).
Although twists on the glass coffin as and the seven dwarfs as were quite clever, other twists didn't really work for me . And is it just me who thinks it's rather weird that ?
I know this graphic novel is getting a lot of praise for the illustrations but, unfortunately, even this aspect of Snow White didn't impress me that much.
Yes, the artwork fits the mood of the 1930s NYC well and it does have a cinematic feel. Oh, and I do love the use of color:
But I guess, Phelan's illustrations in Snow White are just too sketchy for my taste. Since there aren't many words used, I would appreciate more detail to invite my eyes to linger a little.
December 1, 2016
I received a copy of Snow White from Walker Books Australia to review. I love fairy-tale retellings so I was excited to read a graphic novel retelling. I still need to read the original fairy-tale though…
I don’t know much about the pre-Depression era in America so it was interesting to see a version of Snow White told during that time. Even though that wasn’t the focus of the story.
I really liked the illustrations in this, they were beautiful and very film noir which I’ve never seen in a graphic novel before. Although I don’t read a lot of graphic novels so that may be why…
I don’t think there’s a lot I can say about this, other that I liked it. The story was really faced paced but that’s because it’s only 280+ pages and is a graphic novel so there isn’t much to read. I think it’s a great book for any fan of the original fairy-tales or Snow White that is very hard to buy for.
I don’t know much about the pre-Depression era in America so it was interesting to see a version of Snow White told during that time. Even though that wasn’t the focus of the story.
I really liked the illustrations in this, they were beautiful and very film noir which I’ve never seen in a graphic novel before. Although I don’t read a lot of graphic novels so that may be why…
I don’t think there’s a lot I can say about this, other that I liked it. The story was really faced paced but that’s because it’s only 280+ pages and is a graphic novel so there isn’t much to read. I think it’s a great book for any fan of the original fairy-tales or Snow White that is very hard to buy for.
July 29, 2022
A retelling of the classic fairy tale set during the Depression. I liked the monochrome artwork which pervades until the Happy Ending when color bursts forth Wizard of Oz-style. I also like that the dwarfs were played by seven little guttersnipes. While not wildly creative, the story was engaging enough.
January 28, 2021
A very interesting retelling. I liked the creative use of colours as part of the storytelling. However, there were some parts that were quite confusing and which I didn't understand due to the lack of text and dark, intelligible illustrations. But most of it was all right.
October 18, 2016
The umpteenth retelling of Snow White, this time cast during the onset of the Great Depression. While the art is okay, the story has a groan inducing number of awkward turns and silly choices as it works too hard to merge the original tale with cliches from the Depression.
I can almost hear the original pitch: "It's Little Orphan Annie and the Seven Little Rascals! Leapin' lizards, Daddy Warbucks, watch out for that dancehall gold digger!"
Overall Phelan doesn't really incorporate, justify or explain the supernatural elements well. They don't gel with his otherwise gritty, street-level take on the fairy tale. The corny twist on the magic mirror was the hardest for me to take.
Phelan's other graphic novels are much more original and interesting.
I can almost hear the original pitch: "It's Little Orphan Annie and the Seven Little Rascals! Leapin' lizards, Daddy Warbucks, watch out for that dancehall gold digger!"
Overall Phelan doesn't really incorporate, justify or explain the supernatural elements well. They don't gel with his otherwise gritty, street-level take on the fairy tale. The corny twist on the magic mirror was the hardest for me to take.
Phelan's other graphic novels are much more original and interesting.
January 16, 2022
A lovely retelling of the Snow White fairy tale set in NYC in the late 1920s, in which a girl called Samantha White loses her dad in the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, and has to contend with her wicked stepmother bent on getting rid of her.
The setting isn't particularly new, there's Fiona French's "Snow White in New York" that also uses this same premise, so what makes this one worth your time is the style in which the story is delivered. I especially loved Phelan's skill to tell so much with so few words, his interpretation of the seven dwarfs that help Samantha survive, as well as his art style that is so spare that some parts are wordless as in silent films.
The setting isn't particularly new, there's Fiona French's "Snow White in New York" that also uses this same premise, so what makes this one worth your time is the style in which the story is delivered. I especially loved Phelan's skill to tell so much with so few words, his interpretation of the seven dwarfs that help Samantha survive, as well as his art style that is so spare that some parts are wordless as in silent films.
September 26, 2016
A retelling of the tale. Set in Great Depression New York City. The seven dwarves are in fact seven little boys, street urchins. Amazing how faithful you can get in a (mostly?) mundane tale.
Art has its interesting aspects.
Art has its interesting aspects.
Read
February 5, 2017I don't know why people don't do interesting retellings of this one more often. Really good.
February 25, 2024
This re-adaptation of the Snow White tale left me feeling disappointed. While it follows the Disney-esque story faithfully, its film noir vibe wasn’t enough to elevate it for me.
The quickly read story starts out in 1918 as Samantha (Snow) White and her father sadly witness the mother dying. Fast forward 10 years, and the father is suddenly an old man who becomes enchanted with the Queen of the Follies, a glamorous Broadway star. They marry, and Snow is sent away to boarding school for a few years. Snow’s father, the King of Wall Street survives and thrives during the Great Depression, but dies after being poisoned by his new wife.
Snow, now a beautiful young woman, returns for the funeral and during the reading of the will, it is discovered Snow was left most of the estate. Furious, the stepmother hires someone to kill Snow, but she escapes to hide in the snowy streets of NYC. In a shantytown (Hooverville) she befriends seven street urchins who are more savvy in keeping safe and she stays with them.
Snow’s stepmother discovers that Snow is still alive and disguises herself as an old woman so she can give Snow a poisoned apple. The boys discover Snow after she has taken a bite and some give chase to the Queen, in which she meets an untimely demise. The boys reunite to take care of Snow and take her to be displayed in the shop windows of Manhattan, representing the glass coffin. A detective thinking she is dead, kisses her (which is disturbing in modern retellings of this tale) and she awakens. There is a happy ending for all at the end.
The illustrations are sketchy and dark-hued, with a bit of red used sparingly to signify blood and apples. I was reminded of the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", with the black and white illustrations, and I thought the look was reminiscent of stylized silent pictures. The artwork is lovely, and the color used in the last few pages to signify happiness is effective.
Although all the pieces of the story and artwork are well done, they just didn’t fit together well in my mind, perhaps due to the very little dialogue. But I realize others might really enjoy the atmospheric retelling, so I would still recommend it to others who enjoy Snow White tales.
This review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2017/02/1...
The quickly read story starts out in 1918 as Samantha (Snow) White and her father sadly witness the mother dying. Fast forward 10 years, and the father is suddenly an old man who becomes enchanted with the Queen of the Follies, a glamorous Broadway star. They marry, and Snow is sent away to boarding school for a few years. Snow’s father, the King of Wall Street survives and thrives during the Great Depression, but dies after being poisoned by his new wife.
Snow, now a beautiful young woman, returns for the funeral and during the reading of the will, it is discovered Snow was left most of the estate. Furious, the stepmother hires someone to kill Snow, but she escapes to hide in the snowy streets of NYC. In a shantytown (Hooverville) she befriends seven street urchins who are more savvy in keeping safe and she stays with them.
Snow’s stepmother discovers that Snow is still alive and disguises herself as an old woman so she can give Snow a poisoned apple. The boys discover Snow after she has taken a bite and some give chase to the Queen, in which she meets an untimely demise. The boys reunite to take care of Snow and take her to be displayed in the shop windows of Manhattan, representing the glass coffin. A detective thinking she is dead, kisses her (which is disturbing in modern retellings of this tale) and she awakens. There is a happy ending for all at the end.
The illustrations are sketchy and dark-hued, with a bit of red used sparingly to signify blood and apples. I was reminded of the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", with the black and white illustrations, and I thought the look was reminiscent of stylized silent pictures. The artwork is lovely, and the color used in the last few pages to signify happiness is effective.
Although all the pieces of the story and artwork are well done, they just didn’t fit together well in my mind, perhaps due to the very little dialogue. But I realize others might really enjoy the atmospheric retelling, so I would still recommend it to others who enjoy Snow White tales.
This review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2017/02/1...
November 24, 2016
**An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
*Re-read Nov 2016 with finished product.*
I guess what I assumed were rough black and white sketches back when I read this through Netgalley were actually the final products. They did look nicer in the published paper copy vs grainy e-book, but I would have liked a few panels to be a little more clear.
I loved certain elements of the story, especially how the Seven "dwarfs" were done and how the "prince" was handled. I do wish some other elements had been more clearly explained, such as the ticker tape machine. Also, I do wish we'd gotten a better sense of the characters and their personalities; just more of a focus on them and more time getting to know them. I did like all the good guys, but they didn't really come alive for me, as it were.
That ending was pretty perfect though!
*Re-read Nov 2016 with finished product.*
I guess what I assumed were rough black and white sketches back when I read this through Netgalley were actually the final products. They did look nicer in the published paper copy vs grainy e-book, but I would have liked a few panels to be a little more clear.
I loved certain elements of the story, especially how the Seven "dwarfs" were done and how the "prince" was handled. I do wish some other elements had been more clearly explained, such as the ticker tape machine. Also, I do wish we'd gotten a better sense of the characters and their personalities; just more of a focus on them and more time getting to know them. I did like all the good guys, but they didn't really come alive for me, as it were.
That ending was pretty perfect though!
September 30, 2017
If you like film noir, this adaptation is for you.
Most of the art is black & white with intentional splashes of red and a few other colors. Story begins in 1918 moving through the Roaring 20s and Great Depression in the Big Apple of NYC.
Phelan cleverly uses this urban setting to tell Snow White's story and explore class relationships. Snow's relationship with the "dwarfs" here is much more meaningful than the Disneyfied version.
A quick read that had me rethinking several aspects of the story of Snow White, both the Grimm version and Disney one.
Most of the art is black & white with intentional splashes of red and a few other colors. Story begins in 1918 moving through the Roaring 20s and Great Depression in the Big Apple of NYC.
Phelan cleverly uses this urban setting to tell Snow White's story and explore class relationships. Snow's relationship with the "dwarfs" here is much more meaningful than the Disneyfied version.
A quick read that had me rethinking several aspects of the story of Snow White, both the Grimm version and Disney one.
March 9, 2017
A beautiful new take on the classic Snow White story. Set in 1920s New York. I loved the gorgeous illustrations!
December 6, 2017
A beautiful retelling set in 1930's depression era New York, with just a hint of magic.
Popsugar Challenge 2017: a bestseller from a genre you don't normally read (Graphic Novel)
Popsugar Challenge 2017: a bestseller from a genre you don't normally read (Graphic Novel)
June 8, 2024
Talk about the right book for the right reader! Perfection for me. Saw this while thrifting and because I do enjoy a good and unique fairy tale retelling and I was intrigued that it was set in one of my favourite eras I had to add it to the ‘buying it but have no idea where I’m going to put all these books’ pile and I’m so glad I did. Phelan manages to tell Snow White’s story while taking place in the years between 1918 when Snow’s mother dies of the influenza, and her father falls hard for a Ziegfeld follies star in the roaring twenties, to depression era New York and Hooverville. I thought this was all done so well, finding the story really worked and was creatively, superb. The art was stunning and the overall reading experience was chef’s kiss for me. It’s books like these that keep me thrifting like a junkie looking to get their next fix.
April 1, 2017
Just gorgeous.
May 29, 2016
I was excited to receive this book (I won it in an Armchair BEA giveaway so no pressure to review), because I have grown to love the graphical novel media and who doesn't like fairy tales reinterpreted?
Snow White by Matt Phelan takes full advantage of this medium and like another blogger eloquently stated, it really does play like a film on paper. Phelan has a knack for when picture versus dialogue fits, although part of me would have enjoyed a bit more dialogue. The pictures are gorgeous, and I love the reframing of the story in the early 1900's with the drama from that era. The beautiful wicked actress as the Queen, the sweet girl as Snow White, and the 7 urchins as the dwarfs. I loved the moment where the urchins find her and tell her something that is poignant and moving in the latter half of the book. I also like how the book finished. It was a quick read and I made my way through it in less than 30 minutes but it was definitely worth the journey.
My issues were that some of the pictures since they were low resolution for the ARC and not in color were confusing, and I have a feeling it will be much more clear in the final version. Also, Snow White is depicted as sort of a brainless, too innocent girl, which may be close to the fairy tale version, but I like women MC's to have a bit more backbone.
That said, the book delivers what was promised, and I love the imagination that Phelan brings to the page artistically.
Snow White by Matt Phelan takes full advantage of this medium and like another blogger eloquently stated, it really does play like a film on paper. Phelan has a knack for when picture versus dialogue fits, although part of me would have enjoyed a bit more dialogue. The pictures are gorgeous, and I love the reframing of the story in the early 1900's with the drama from that era. The beautiful wicked actress as the Queen, the sweet girl as Snow White, and the 7 urchins as the dwarfs. I loved the moment where the urchins find her and tell her something that is poignant and moving in the latter half of the book. I also like how the book finished. It was a quick read and I made my way through it in less than 30 minutes but it was definitely worth the journey.
My issues were that some of the pictures since they were low resolution for the ARC and not in color were confusing, and I have a feeling it will be much more clear in the final version. Also, Snow White is depicted as sort of a brainless, too innocent girl, which may be close to the fairy tale version, but I like women MC's to have a bit more backbone.
That said, the book delivers what was promised, and I love the imagination that Phelan brings to the page artistically.
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