FRINDLESWYLDE

A reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.”

The night of the first snow, Granny warns Cora about “cunning” Frindleswylde: “He’ll snatch the storks and hide the moon and pick the locks. As he creeps by, the bristling hills turn white as ghosts.” The next day, after Granny becomes lost in the nearby woods in a blizzard, Cora meets the shape-shifting Frindleswylde, who now takes the form of a young boy—a sort of Jack Frost figure depicted in cool tones. He tricks Cora into coming to his icy kingdom and then gives her three “Impossible Tasks” to save Granny. Cora succeeds at turning “hard to soft and soft to hard,” at making “the singing silent and the silent sing,” and at turning “black to white and white to black” but is ultimately tricked by Frindleswylde and trapped, becoming the Queen of Winter and seemingly forgetting Granny after her heart freezes. But something of the old Cora still remains. Readers familiar with stories by the Brothers Grimm and Andersen will recognize some themes and archetypes, but the prose offers some delightful turns of phrase and fantastic imaginings of the ways seasons change, and the delicate, painterly mixed-media illustrations complement the material beautifully. All characters are pale-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A fresh story for fans of classic fairy tales.