THE STORY OF THE SNOW CHILDREN

A simple but richly imaginative tale in a tiny book with exquisite illustrations, translated from a 1905 German book.

Poppy (called in the original Marilenchen, little Marilena) stands in the window watching little round snow children swirling and dancing, calling her to play with them. She dresses warmly and is taken on Swirly-Wind’s silver sledge to the Snow Queen’s castle. There, she joins the celebration of the little princess’ birthday with white chocolate and sweet iced tea, beautiful ice flowers and so much dancing that Poppy is exhausted. Although the princess wants her to stay, the Snow Queen gently sends Poppy home with a snowman driver and snow bears to pull the sleigh. Poppy tells her mother of all those wonderful events. Each illustration is framed with panels of snowdrops, beautiful in their perfect line and delicate color. Frozen branches, ice-carved, beribboned arches and the roly-poly snow children make patterns on the pages as finely etched as window frost. The colors are palest of blues and greens, except for the queen’s and princess’ golden hair and Poppy’s scarlet coat and hat.

An old-fashioned delight for new children.