by Anne Ursu
If you’ve read any of my previous book reviews, you may have
figured out that I’m a sucker for magical realism (I’m also a sucker for
magical magic, but that’s beside the point). I love when I find a story that works so brilliantly
as a subtle, slice-of-life drama that you don’t blink an eye at the fantastical
and otherworldly elements sprinkled throughout. I have seen the excellent
Breadcrumbs (which has already received many much-deserved lauds) described as
a modern retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” — and it is
— but there’s so much more going on here than just “let’s set an old fairy
tale in modern times.”
Breadcrumbs is about childhood friendships — how solid and
unchangeable they can seem, how strangely fickle and malleable they can be, and
how utterly important they are either way. It’s about the way friendships, especially at that age, help us form a view of ourselves and our world.
And the story just happens to have a child-stealing witch in it. And a mystical
forest, and a magic mirror. But those Hans Christian Andersonian bits aren’t
the story; they just help tell the story. And wonderfully so. After all, your
tween years are such a surreal mishmash of hormones, emotions, pressures, and changes
that it often feels like you’re roaming through an alternate universe half the time anyway.
In that sense, Breadcrumbs feels like a
better bookshelf companion for Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me (another
masterful piece of magical realism, or more appropriately, sci-fi realism) than
anything by, say, Gregory Maguire (whose work is wonderful in a very different
way).
To tell her sad and lovely story of friendship, Ursu makes
genius use of not only “The Snow Queen,” but an anthology’s worth of other
Andersen tales. I don’t want to spoil too much, but as ten-year-old Hazel treks
through the dark and danger-filled woods in search of her missing former best
friend, she runs into one Andersen character after another — and grows in some
way with each encounter. My daughter is just about Hazel’s age and I can’t wait
to pass Breadcrumbs on to her. But I’m going to have her read up on her
Andersen first. Getting the references only adds to experience.
Best for: Tweens going through rough patches (or anybody who
remembers being one); Hans Christian Andersen fans who have been longing to see any of his stories other than "The Little Mermaid" get its due; readers who enjoy their
fantasy adventures with more brainwork than fisticuffs or swordplay
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