THE SNOW QUEEN

A young girl frees her best friend from a coldhearted queen in this retelling of one of Andersen’s most beloved tales.

Siblings Arne and Janna live on a Swedish farm and eagerly await the mysterious parcels that arrive in winter; each contains an object accompanied by a section of a story, and every Saturday night for the next seven weeks, they read a different chapter. In the first, a wicked troll, who resembles a tusked boar, drops a magic mirror that makes the world look “nastier and uglier than the real one.” The second introduces another Arne and Janna, who are close friends (Janna is pale-skinned, Arne brown-skinned). Arne turns cruel after something sharp—later revealed to be a shard from the magic mirror—falls into his eye. A beautiful, pale-skinned woman—the Snow Queen—arrives and takes Arne with him to her kingdom in the north. The following sections see loyal Janna, worried about her friend, set out to save him. Eventually the two return south, where their story blends with the framing narrative. Translated from Dutch, Westera’s retelling employs a clever structure and elegant prose that should win over even Andersen purists. De Jong’s warm, precise illustrations balance chilly and cozy moments and include a map of Janna’s trek.

An enthrallingly reimagined classic.