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Author Information
Author's Last Name: 
Ursu
Author's First Name: 
Anne
Illustrator's First Name: 
Erin
Illustrator's Last Name: 
McGuire
Publisher: 
Walden
Publication Date: 
2011
2013 Nomination (not yet selected): 

Hazel’s father has left, creating emotional and financial hardships which force Hazel to leave her creativity-fostering school for one of multiple-choice tests and straight rows of desks. Here, though, she has her best friend and companion in magic and fantasy super-hero baseball games, Jack. But taunting classmates, Jack’s own family troubles and a mysterious shard of glass in the eye pull them apart. When Jack disappears, Hazel sets off on a journey through frozen woods populated with the Snow Queen and other characters from Andersen’s fairy tales to save him. Spell-inducing prose convincingly interweaves a harsh reality with perilous fantasy to evoke the power of love and friendship. Ten to Fourteen. Kathleen Neil

Spell-inducing prose convincingly interweaves the harsh realities of fifth-grader Hazel’s world—parental divorce and school bullies—with an heroic journey through perilous fantasy woods to save a beloved best friend.

Comments

Meeting Notes for November

by ladamson - 11/23/2011 - 6:19pm

Meeting Notes for November 18

Positive Comments:

  • The story has at least 18 references to children’s books so avid readers will feel extremely smart. Readers unfamiliar with the allusions, however, will still enjoy the story.
  • The girl has a suspenseful adventure.
  • The boy-girl middle school relationship is treated well.
  • The writing takes readers into the psychological interior of the child’s mind to  feel the depression of the family enough to believe the child when she moves into the woods and a fantasy world.
  • The baseball player is real, and the magical element in literature comes through.

Concerns:

  • The emotionally gripping first part of the novel does not bridge well to the second part containing the fantasy world.
  • By spending so much time in the real world, the story moves too slowly and fails to suspend the reader’s disbelief.
  • The overwrought language would sometimes causes the protagonist’s thinking to seem unclear.