Little Daughter of the Snow

PreSchool-Grade 4–An old man and woman build a snow girl, hoping that she will come alive and relieve their sorrow at being childless. At twilight, she begins to sing and dance, promising that she will continue to laugh and…play, unless she learns that they do not truly love her, and then she will melt away. Their days pass happily until spring, when the snow girl becomes lost in the woods. A red fox brings her home safely, but the couple begrudges him a fat hen as his reward. Feeling that they love her less than a hen, the child melts away and returns to her parents, Frost and Snow. Taken from Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales (Puffin, 1975; o.p.), this folktale has been abridged and updated, making the text more concise and easier to understand. The modern language is juxtaposed with the snow daughter's songs, which have been quoted from the original (e.g., No warm blood in me doth glow,/Water in my veins doth flow). The textured, folk-style illustrations invest the story with new energy and depict details of traditional Russian peasant life. Cool blues and whites capture the snowy outdoors, contrasting with the warm oranges in the old people's loving home. A well-told and colorfully illustrated version of a story about love and priorities.–Suzanne Myers Harold, Multnomah County Library System, Portland, OR
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K-Gr. 3. An elderly couple longing for a child make a little snow girl, who comes alive and dances in the winter landscape. Singing her words, the little girl tells the couple that she will melt away if they do not love her enough. Based on a tale in Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales (1916), this re-creates the classic foundling story with surprising twists and turns. In thickly painted art with lots of puppetlike figures and circles of loving embrace, Bower captures the story beautifully, showing the snow girl at home in the village when it is cold and white, and then lost in the woods. And nothing could be cozier than the warm oranges and browns of the old couple's hearth, but when the couple's greed causes them to let their snow girl down, the girl melts away to join Father Frost and Mother Snow in the dark, starry sky. A haunting story of finding and leaving home. Hazel Rochman
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