What does it mean to be brave when you’re an asthmatic 11-year-old
girl, your mother has died and you’re in an exotic city where it’s eerily snowy? It means that Ophelia Jane
Worthington-Whittard is a courageous heroine with heart in this fresh take on
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.” It means that Ophelia will face
numerous dangers to save a nameless boy, a marvelous boy, she meets. Ophelia,
her older sister, Alice, and their father, one of the world’s leading experts
on swords, are in the snowy city for Christmas week so her father can organize
an exhibition in an enormous, yet curiously empty, museum that resembles the
Russian Hermitage in many ways.
It’s a museum where: The
guards sat in corners and knitted or dozed. Sometimes, they snarled and yelled
like banshees for no good reason and other times, they let children climb on
the glass cabinets, using the brass handles for footholds. Sometimes, they came
rushing at people who just happened to stand too long in one place, and other
times, they smiled huge toothless smiles and offered old fruit from their large
black handbags.
The
museum in the city where it always snowed was the type of place where a person
could easily get lost. Miss Kaminski, the museum curator, had said so
herself. Miss Kaminski was dazzlingly
beautiful. . . She had smiled at Ophelia and Alice before placing a perfectly
manicured hand on their father’s arm.
“It is advisable that they do not wander alone,” Miss Kaminski said.
“The museum is very big, and several girls have become lost and never been found.” But Ophelia didn’t feel afraid.
Readers immediately surmise that Miss Kaminski, the
museum curator, isn’t kind and isn’t what Ophelia’s smitten sister and father think
she is. How? Miss Kaminski continually calls Ophelia every
name imaginable except Ophelia and if someone refuses to acknowledge who you
are, beware! After all “The Marvelous
Boy” of the title had his name taken and look where he is. He’s sitting
ensnared in a hidden cell in the museum where he’s been held captive for over
three centuries. Thankfully, a spell keeps the unseen Snow Queen from killing
him outright but the curse will expire in just three days and he’ll die and the
Snow Queen’s frosty wrath will be unleashed on the world. When Ophelia
discovers the Marvelous Boy, he needs her help to save the world. It’s not a
job Ophelia wants to take on as it involves ghosts, magical owls and snow
queens and Ophelia believes in science not fantasy. “She didn’t believe in boys
who came from elsewhere. She simply
refused.”
But “that boy,
locked behind that door, made her feel unsettled. . . He shouldn’t have been
there, and he shouldn’t have spoken to her and he shouldn’t have asked her to
save the world. . . But if she retrieved the key for him, then she could at
least say she had helped. She could probably find his name too. . . If she
could let him out and help him find his name, then at least he might be able to
get home.” Thus begins Ophelia’s quest through the museum to open hidden
rooms filled with “misery birds,” ghostly girls, and enchanted clocks to find a
magical sword all while hiding her journey from her father and sister. They all miss Ophelia’s mother who had died “exactly
three months, seven days, and nine hours ago” and some of their unthinking
actions reflect their grief.
What child doesn’t love a book set in a museum especially
one in which a brave 11-year-old girl can save the world by using her brains,
her inhaler, and her heart along with a tube of super glue and a can or two of
sardines when needed. Adding to the mystical story are Yoko Tanaka’s evocative
illustrations of the snowy museum garden, the unsettling hallways, and the room
of clocks.
Summing it Up: Australian
author Karen Foxlee delivers a magical tale of wonder for fans of Harry Potter, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and
traditional fairy tales. Children will devour this fantastic story as they’d
down a thick mug of hot chocolate on a bitterly cold day. Parts of the United States have spent the
winter of 2013 - 14 in a snowy deep freeze and this tale is perfect for a snow
day when all is still outside and magic is brewing by a cozy fire.
Ages 8 – 12
Rating: 5 stars
Category: Five Stars, Peanut
Butter and Jelly
Publication date: January
28, 2014
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