Another incredible Russian artist. Like Gennady Spirin, Ibatoulline's illustrations are breathtakingly rendered.

A story of two close childhood friends, one Kai another Gerda. When Kai acts cruelly, Gerda knows something is very wrong. Undergoing a haunting journey to find her best friend, Gerda ends up at the palace o the evil snow queen. Gerda must break the spell that the snow queen has over Kai. ( )

Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen retold by Allison Grace MacDonald.

There once was a wicked troll who created a powerful mirror. It could reflect the good into ugly & horrible. It also reflected all evil into appealing. The wicked troll wanted to make fun of the Angels so he flew High up into the heavens with his powerful mirror. The higher he flew the more he left he laughed until he could not hold the mirror anymore and it slipped out of his hands. The mirror fell into the ground and broke into millions of pieces that were as Tiny as grains of sand. The pieces of mirror got picked up by the winds and spread across the whole earth. "The troll laughed even harder about this. He couldn't wait to see the evil his mirror would inflict upon the world."

Allison Grace MacDonald retells Anderson's story of what happened when the little glass pieces flew into the house and struck a young boy named, Kai. Kai went to close the window blown open by the snow storm. When he did a little scrap of the mirror flew into Kai's eye and another one into his heart. Because of this, Kai became rude/nasty to his best friend, Gerda. He ran off to the Snow Queen's palace. Gerda goes off to find and save Kai. On the way, Gerda gets a lot of help from many people such as an old lady who did witchcraft, a princess, a prince, animals, flowers, and even a little robber-girl (who at first hurt her). They all lead her to the correct path to find Kai. Much later in time, she finds Kai. He is frozen, cold, stiff, still, and alone. He does not recognize Gerda. Gerda's tears of happiness (and slightly sadness) help warm up Kai's frozen heart that the Snow Queen gave him. Kai remembers Gerda and hugs her back. Tears rushed out of Kai's eyes which helped the little mirror piece out of his eye. Kai's world became clear again & they both traveled home.

This story was originally written by Hans Christian Andersen. Allison Grace MacDonald is just retelling us the story of The Snow Queen. Compared to the retold story by Ken Setterington, MacDonald's story is shorter and summarizes the whole story. MacDonald's book has great art & color inside it drawn by Bagram I. which adds great details to the story. ( )

The Snow Queen is a great fairy tale about two great friends. Kai is cursed by the evil troll when a piece of the evil mirror gets in his heart and eye. He then becomes a servant to the snow queen! Gerda spends her time trying to find him and return home with him. Finally, she finds him and they go back home together. Except now they are now no longer children but adults. We learn how important friendship is and how important it is to be there for your friends in time of need. ( )

"The Snow Queen" is about two friends named Gerda and Kai. A splinter from an evil mirror goes through Kai's eye and heart, causing him to act cruelly to others. His bad behavior then drives him to treat Gerda badly and leave to be with the Snow Queen. Gerda sets out to find Kai and goes through many obstacles to find him to bring him home. Eventually, good conquers evil and Gerda is able to bring him home and bring out the good in him again. Overall, the style and writing in this picture book is very beautiful. The writing is straight to the point, but provides the reader enough information to keep them wondering about this story. The characters and settings are illustrated in a very realistic looking way with normal proportions while showcasing the emotions each character is feeling. For example, when Gerda is going through the snow and witnessing the Northern Lights, the scenery looks like a photograph. The realism is also seen in the characters' faces. An example of this is when Gerda is going through the blizzard and the reader has a full view of the look of despair and destress on her face. The illustrator captures the characters' emotions and the accuracy of the scenery beautifully. ( )

Interesting story with beautifully drawn illustrations and classical lesson of good conquering evil. Although this story might be a bit scary for some young children.