A Winter's Tale

Ingamald

by Gail Sidonie Sobat

A Winter's Tale continues the story of Ingamald, a young woman destined to be a powerful witch in a pre-industrial world known as Hinterlund. A fearmonger in the person of Morton Winter has bought himself into power and works to control the largely illiterate populace.

His oppression is absolute as he puts a halt to learning and outlaws any who work in the arcane arts. Ingamald her magical rabblerouser friends are threatened with torture and death. She takes drastic and sometimes magical action, and through her wits and disguises plots Winter’s demise.
Second in this YA series, A Winter’s Tale explores personal and social responsibility through the strong minor characters and especially the strong female heroine. Gail, a specialist in Children’s Literature, plots another tale in this series that capers and dallies with language and detail aimed at Jr/Sr high and gifted readers.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2004

About the author

Gail is a witch at heart, a pirate in her dreams, and a gypsy in practice.
She has assumed any number of disguises in her lifetime, including that of teacher, adjunct professor, woman-in black, professional actor and singer, grounds keeper, flag girl, parimutuel seller and flower seller. She is the creator/ coordinator of YouthWrite, a camp for kids who love to write, a teacher at the University of Alberta Hospital School, an instructor in the University of Alberta Faculty of Education, and the Canadian Authors Association(Alberta Chapter) Writer-in Residence. Gail completed a Master’s degree in English at the University of Alberta in Children’s Literature, specializing in fantasy.

Reviews

[Stargazer601 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this fantasy novel until the end. The author pulled together a very interesting plot of good characters fighting the evil bad guy and as I was reading I wondered how she would end this short book, but she did not really. It was worth the read, but I was left wondering why the author ended it that way; it was almost like she was experimenting with a complete disregard for the reader's expectations, but her lack of resolution was unexpected and disappointing.

I did see the historical parallels she was trying to draw between the twisted evil man from nowhere who used fear, torture and death to control those around him, and how he forbade people to read in order to keep all knowledge to himself, to further his control, the way so many historical and current leaders have done (think Hitler, mob bosses, etc). This is a way to teach the young readers to be wary of those types of dictators and work to prevent them. I too believe that those who would restrict our access to information want to keep us ignorant and controllable, but without a resolution to this story, the whole message was undermined.

To reiterate, I was hooked right up until the end. It is worth the read, but could have been better.

***I have since learned that there is a sequel, so I guess the author was trying for a cliffhanger ending to entice us to read/buy the next book. The problem is that by choosing not to wrap up the story just for the sake of a sequel is an indication to me that the author/publisher is either putting profit before the readers or is not skilled enough at writing. I will not bother reading the sequel.

[Liesl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great vacation read. Completely frustrated by cliffhanger ending. Apparently this is a sequel and there's a 3rd book which would be so cruel if there were not. Almost as cruel is that my local library system has neither the first book or the third. ARGH!

[Lilly [Hiatus due to School] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I enjoyed as a teen.