The Snow Queen

by Marcia Brown (Illustrator), Hans Christian Andersen, R.P. Keigwin (Translator)

". . . in the gutters between our and the neighbor's house, there stood a great chest filled with soil, my Mother's sole garden, and where grew her vegetables. In my story of the Snow Queen that garden still blooms."--True Story of My Life, Andersen

So Andersen takes his story from the intimacy of two children playing in a tiny roof garden to the vast and empty spaces of the Snow Queen's icy halls. The story of Kay, whose heart was pierced by a splinter of Reason, and Gerda's search for him to the ends of the earth to melt his heart of ice with her love, is one of the world's greatest tales. A child will read the book for its adventurous narrative; as an adult, he may still be haunted by its inner life.

Marcia Brown's many fine-line drawings reveal the spirit and moods of this story, so luminous with beauty and the poignancy of living. It deserves to be part of every child's bookshelf.

96 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972

About the author

An American children's book author and illustrator, and a high school teacher, Marcia Brown was born in Rochester, New York in 1918, and was educated at The New York State College for Teachers (now University at Albany). She taught at Cornwall High School in New York City, and published her first book, The Little Carousel, in 1946. She wrote and illustrated more than thirty books for children over the course of her career, winning three Caldecott Medals and six Caldecott Honors, as well as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal and the Regina Medal. She died in 2015.

Reviews

[Saffron Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This rating is for the edition translated by R.P. Keigwin and illustrated by Marcia Brown.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because I knew that it was the inspiration for Frozen. I was curious to see where the story originated, and how close it was to the original tale told by Hans Christian Anderson. I didn't really LOVE Frozen, so I knew I wasn't going to fall in love with this. I merely read it out of curiosity. It was very strange, full of tangents, and the Snow Queen herself had very little to do with the story. Here's what the two stories do have in common:
-It takes place in a fictitious Scandinavian type northern country.
-It was about a person who leaves due to ice magic, and someone else, who cares very much about this person, goes on a journey to get them back.
-There is a shard of ice in Kay's heart, and it threatens to turn him to solid ice if it isn't removed.
-There's a helpful reindeer. (But this one's name is Moo.)
-Love is the key to removing the ice and bringing Kay back to normal.
Everything else is completely different. The Ice Queen is seen as more of a villain here, and the main characters, Kay and Gerda, have no familial connection to her.
As it stands, this fairy tale is merely OK. It has most of the familiar elements- strangers and animals helping the person on the journey, and the main character needing to pass tests or challenges to reach their end goal. There was a section that was completely out of left field that made no sense- Chapter 3, when Gerda was in the garden, she asks at least 5 flowers if they know where Kay is and how to find him, and they all go off and tell her random stories that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot. I skimmed through most of this section, as it was uninteresting and unnecessary. The other thing that bothered me was that there were clear Christian tones in the story- at one point, she says the Lord's Prayer and angels come down and defeat the evil snowflakes. It was a little too 'on the nose' for me. I'm glad Disney left that out. I'm giving this a 2.5 out of 5 stars. This story didn't age well, and I really enjoy Frozen so much more.

[Isabel Bryan [the Bookmark Hoarder] · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.