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The Snow Queen
Gerda and Kay are the best of friends. They live across an alley from each other and happily chat, play, and tend their lovely rose garden. The children are happy until tragedy strikes Kay. His eye and heart are pierced with fragments of a mirror, and the loving boy Gerda knew vanishes. The Snow Queen has put him under her spell and taken him to her palace of snow and ice. It is up to Gerda to find him and bring him home to the love that awaits him.
In this timeless storybook, Ken Setterington has captured the haunting beauty of the classic tale of love’s ability to conquer the coldest, most damaged heart. The book is illustrated with the delicate traditional cut paper art of scherenschnitt , which Hans Christian Andersen himself practiced.
In this timeless storybook, Ken Setterington has captured the haunting beauty of the classic tale of love’s ability to conquer the coldest, most damaged heart. The book is illustrated with the delicate traditional cut paper art of scherenschnitt , which Hans Christian Andersen himself practiced.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 7, 2015
A gorgeous fairy tale with a deep and meaningful message.
May 2, 2019
The text is mostly a straight translation of Hans Christian Anderson's original tale, although its simplified here and there - taking out the description of all the flower's stories, for example - and edits out bits from the original that might strike modern parents as too problematic for bed time reading, such as the robber girl's mother's alcoholism.
The illustrations are done in the paper cut out silhouette style that was all the rage when Anderson originally wrote the story. The cuts outs mimic the themes on the story of snowflakes and mirrors. Most of the illustrations resemble either the the lacy geometry of a snowflake, or have a mirrored style - but, keeping with the opening description of a mirror that turns good to bad - the illustrations often show an almost reflection, with something just slightly different happening on each side.
The text is still too wordy for very young readers, but the illustrations perfectly evoke the chill and beauty of a 19th century winter.
June 30, 2016
It was a great book. I almost cried at the end. Hans Christian Anderson is a wonderful author. :)
September 1, 2024
As a classic novel, I really don't expect many twists and turns despite the fact that it's my first time reading it and Frozen was the only movie I watched which was somehow related to it but it wasn't related to it at all. I think, it wasn't really a thing that entertains me considering my age but I like the end. It describes life as a journey where you experience challenges, meet friends and enemies on the way but you'll find happiness in the end.
February 6, 2020
It was very cute. The lengths that the girl went to to save her friend is amazing. This is why I love fairy tales so much.
December 23, 2018
The Snow Queen is an original fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kai.
The devil, in the form of an evil troll, has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The magic mirror fails to reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things, and magnifies their bad and ugly aspects – the devil attempt to carry the mirror into heaven in order to make fools of the angels and God.
However, but the higher they lift it, the more the mirror shakes with laughter, and it slips from their grasp and falls back to earth, shattering into billions of pieces, some no larger than a grain of sand. The splinters are blown by the wind all over the Earth and get into people's hearts and eyes, freezing their hearts like blocks of ice and making their eyes like the troll-mirror itself, seeing only the bad and ugly in people and things.
Years later, a little boy Kai and a little girl Gerda live next door to each other in the garrets of buildings with adjoining roofs in a large city. They could get from one's home to the other just by stepping over the gutters of each building. The two families grow vegetables and roses in window boxes placed on the gutters. Gerda and Kai have a window-box garden to play in, and they become devoted to each other as playmates, and as close as if they were siblings.
On a pleasant summer day, splinters of the troll-mirror get into Kai's heart and eyes. Kai becomes cruel and aggressive. He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of his grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since everyone now appears bad and ugly to him. The only beautiful and perfect things to him now are the tiny snowflakes that he sees through a magnifying glass.
The following winter, Kai goes out with his sled to play in the snowy market square and hitches it to a curious white sleigh carriage, driven by the Snow Queen, who appears as a woman in a white fur-coat. Outside the city, she reveals herself to Kai and kisses him twice: once to numb him from the cold and a second time to make him forget about Gerda and his family – a third kiss would kill him. She takes Kai in her sleigh to her palace.
The people of the city conclude that Kai died in the nearby river. Gerda, heartbroken, goes out to look for him and questions everyone and everything about Kai's whereabouts, which begins a fantastical journey that would take her to the Snow Queen’s palace and save and cure her friend – Kai.
Ernst and Nelly Hofer illustrated this particular edition. Their illustrations were rendered rather well, which compliments the narrative wonderfully. Ken Setterington did a superb job in translating and adapting the narrative from the original Dutch – well at least I was told this as I cannot speak and read any Dutch.
All in all, The Snow Queen is a wonderful classical story that is rather wonderful, imaginative, and rather apropos for this time of year.
The devil, in the form of an evil troll, has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The magic mirror fails to reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things, and magnifies their bad and ugly aspects – the devil attempt to carry the mirror into heaven in order to make fools of the angels and God.
However, but the higher they lift it, the more the mirror shakes with laughter, and it slips from their grasp and falls back to earth, shattering into billions of pieces, some no larger than a grain of sand. The splinters are blown by the wind all over the Earth and get into people's hearts and eyes, freezing their hearts like blocks of ice and making their eyes like the troll-mirror itself, seeing only the bad and ugly in people and things.
Years later, a little boy Kai and a little girl Gerda live next door to each other in the garrets of buildings with adjoining roofs in a large city. They could get from one's home to the other just by stepping over the gutters of each building. The two families grow vegetables and roses in window boxes placed on the gutters. Gerda and Kai have a window-box garden to play in, and they become devoted to each other as playmates, and as close as if they were siblings.
On a pleasant summer day, splinters of the troll-mirror get into Kai's heart and eyes. Kai becomes cruel and aggressive. He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of his grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since everyone now appears bad and ugly to him. The only beautiful and perfect things to him now are the tiny snowflakes that he sees through a magnifying glass.
The following winter, Kai goes out with his sled to play in the snowy market square and hitches it to a curious white sleigh carriage, driven by the Snow Queen, who appears as a woman in a white fur-coat. Outside the city, she reveals herself to Kai and kisses him twice: once to numb him from the cold and a second time to make him forget about Gerda and his family – a third kiss would kill him. She takes Kai in her sleigh to her palace.
The people of the city conclude that Kai died in the nearby river. Gerda, heartbroken, goes out to look for him and questions everyone and everything about Kai's whereabouts, which begins a fantastical journey that would take her to the Snow Queen’s palace and save and cure her friend – Kai.
Ernst and Nelly Hofer illustrated this particular edition. Their illustrations were rendered rather well, which compliments the narrative wonderfully. Ken Setterington did a superb job in translating and adapting the narrative from the original Dutch – well at least I was told this as I cannot speak and read any Dutch.
All in all, The Snow Queen is a wonderful classical story that is rather wonderful, imaginative, and rather apropos for this time of year.
January 7, 2014
I was interested in this book, because I was told that the movie "Frozen" was based on The Snow Queen. I have read The Snow Queen story before and was not all that impressed. I still am not. Yes, it is a classic, but it reads more like a story written by a child - first, I did this, then I did that, then I went here, and then I went there.
I was not all that enamored of the movie Frozen, either. There was too much fighting and too many chase scenes for me. The art work was lovely, though, and there was potential for good character development, which almost cancelled out the fighting and extended chase scenes.
This book also seems to have the potential for good character development, but, for some reason, it falls a bit short for me. Also, while I recognize the craft of the art work, I would be surprised if it appealed to today's children.
I am still looking for a Snow Queen book that is highly appealing to me.
I was not all that enamored of the movie Frozen, either. There was too much fighting and too many chase scenes for me. The art work was lovely, though, and there was potential for good character development, which almost cancelled out the fighting and extended chase scenes.
This book also seems to have the potential for good character development, but, for some reason, it falls a bit short for me. Also, while I recognize the craft of the art work, I would be surprised if it appealed to today's children.
I am still looking for a Snow Queen book that is highly appealing to me.
March 9, 2014
Like many other reviewers I read this in order to compare with the latest Disney movie adaptation, Frozen. I wish Disney had used more of the original "girl power" plot elements instead of just glorifying the villain and justifying the new age of non-traditional families.
Hans Christian Andersen's story is about a boy and girl and the adventures they have after accidently encountering an enchanted object that sends the girl on a quest to rescue the boy from the evil Snow Queen. She meets many interesting characters along the way but there's no great climatic showdown and no ultimate defeat of the evil Snow Queen. The narration drags in some places and the ending isn't as satisfying as other fairy tales. This story is easily forgettable and probably could've been told in less than seven stories. Still an enjoyable read and suitable for all ages with a nice underlying message of love and friendship.
Hans Christian Andersen's story is about a boy and girl and the adventures they have after accidently encountering an enchanted object that sends the girl on a quest to rescue the boy from the evil Snow Queen. She meets many interesting characters along the way but there's no great climatic showdown and no ultimate defeat of the evil Snow Queen. The narration drags in some places and the ending isn't as satisfying as other fairy tales. This story is easily forgettable and probably could've been told in less than seven stories. Still an enjoyable read and suitable for all ages with a nice underlying message of love and friendship.
February 6, 2018
This has always been my favorite fairytale. It's much longer than the "usual" fairytales one knows from the Brothers Grimm or Andersen himself, and much more complex.
I love the mysterious setting: the infinite snow is white and innocent, but cold and cruel at the same time. I love the idea of glass splitters in one's eye that make people see the bad in everything. I like to think that this is the truth - people are "just" blind to see the true nature of things. And I like to read about the endless love of little Gerda for her friend Kay, that she's willing to conquer all trouble to find him again. A beautiful tale that I still love after all these years.
I love the mysterious setting: the infinite snow is white and innocent, but cold and cruel at the same time. I love the idea of glass splitters in one's eye that make people see the bad in everything. I like to think that this is the truth - people are "just" blind to see the true nature of things. And I like to read about the endless love of little Gerda for her friend Kay, that she's willing to conquer all trouble to find him again. A beautiful tale that I still love after all these years.
October 29, 2019
If this is pretty close to the original version, what a mess! I haven't actually ever read the fairytale for this so was excited when I happened upon it. The flow between events is very jarring and feel very disconnected. They are too short to flesh anything out. Convenience events occur in every story suddenly that aren't really explained. I was more into the cut paper silhouettes throughout the book than the story itself. I'm hopeful there's a better version.
September 20, 2014
This book was retold and perhaps not very well. But it might be a good introduction for kids. I would like to read the actual text by Andersen to see if the story is as strange and confusing and disjointed as this book made it seem. Why it is called the snow queen is confusing since she was in it for about three sentences; I can only imagine that there is much more to the story than this.
May 13, 2014
This would make for a crazy read on hallucinogens. This is the only version I've read, but it seems too choppy. Like ... Talking reindeer? Robber girl with knife? Dead raven? I may read the original one day, but this little version was only ok.
June 15, 2020
Wonderful fairytale! This book scared me as a child! My sister Jolie would read this to me.
Ohhhhh we watched the movie and we were so frightened the Snow Queen was REAL.
WHO could NOT give Hans Christian Anderson 5 stars!!!
Ohhhhh we watched the movie and we were so frightened the Snow Queen was REAL.
WHO could NOT give Hans Christian Anderson 5 stars!!!
December 4, 2021
I’d already purchased this copy by the time I found out it’s an abridged/adapted version. I enjoyed it, but I need to read the original fairy tale so I can accurately rate the story itself. Thankfully I found the audiobook (I think), and we have a Hans Christian Andersen collection, so stay tuned!
December 20, 2021
1st time.
Finally, it only took 3 months for this book to get to me. This is the second book for the children's literature class that I started months ago. I had never read this story before and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Way more uplifting than The Little Mermaid!
Finally, it only took 3 months for this book to get to me. This is the second book for the children's literature class that I started months ago. I had never read this story before and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Way more uplifting than The Little Mermaid!
March 5, 2009
I love scherenschnitte...gorgeous illustrations and very fitting for a tale by Hans C. Andersen.
June 4, 2012
OK, I know I was supposed to enjoy this more, since it is a classic, but it was a bit too sparse for my preferences. Sorry.
April 12, 2014
A pretty good re-telling. Changed a few small things and left a few others out. The art is interesting and well done but not my favorite.
December 17, 2014
Thanks to Audible for the Christmas gift! A free audio of The Snow Queen read by their Narrator of the Year, Julie Whelan. Lovely.
February 24, 2015
Lovely edition of the 7 stories in one with beautifully wrought paper cutting illustrations. Our children enjoyed this in sections-too much for one read through with early elementary students.
March 7, 2015
Was expecting more, what with it being a 'classic' etc. So maybe my high hopes meant that I finished reading this book feeling a little disappointed. Lovely artwork though.
December 10, 2020
A very enjoyable story.
December 20, 2020
A beautiful whimsical snowy tale - perfect for the cold season. ❄❅❆
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews