BREADCRUMBS

BREADCRUMBS by Anna Ursu

I have to admit, I didn't know exactly what to think of this one at the start, but it grew on me a bit as I read it. Based on Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale The Snow Queen, this modern retelling does just that. It keeps some of the foundational elements of the original tale and weaves in difficult situations that too many kids are familiar with today.

Hazel's dad has left her mom and is about to get remarried. Originally, attending a private school that she was thriving in where creativity and exploration were king, Hazel now has to attend the local school, and she's not making it. The one positive is that it's where her best friend, Jack, goes. The kicker is Jack has his own problem he's dealing with. His mom is dealing with life-altering depression. Once an active and involved pillar in his life, she sits and stares lost to the world for hours on end.

If you read HCA's original tale, a demon creates a mirror that had "the power of making everything good or beautiful that was reflected in it almost shrink to nothing, while everything that was worthless and bad increased in size and looked worse than ever." When the mirror shattered, shards fell and embedded themselves into people changing their life perspective. Such is the case in Breadcrumbs except the mirror is created by a goblin. One of the falling shards lands in Jack's eye, and he changes. The good things in his life are minimized and the hard stuff maximized. It isn't long after this that he has an encounter with the Snow Queen who promises him a place where his heart's desires would come true. Primed and ready to leave all the hard stuff in his life behind, he follows her into the woods to a place where his heart begins to freeze and no longer cares about what lays back in his old life. After being gone for a few days, Hazel doesn't believe the story that he's staying with his aunt. Something's not right, and she plunges into the woods determined to rescue and bring her friend back. Of course, this is where the fairy tale part picks up as Hazel encounters lots of unique situations.

The story is written in a beautiful style befitting for a fairy tale, but it is complicated. Unhappiness dogs Hazel and Jack, and in the end, SPOILER ALERT Hazel does rescue Jack, and they do have the beauty of their friendship, but none of their difficult home situations get resolved. The reader holds onto the knowledge that they have each other as friends to weather the storms together. Ultimately, we see themes such as never giving up on a friend and perseverance, but there is still a bit of lingering sadness that haunts the reader when the cover closes. As I often tell my own kids, in life things are not always wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow.

A couple of side notes -

I did find it interesting to go back and read the original story.

One of the fun things about this book is it's nods to lots of literary greats! Obviously, The Snow Queen fairy tale, but then also The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Wonderland, and A Wrinkle in Time.

HEADS UP- There is magic in this book since it is a fairy tale retelling. As mentioned above, both kids are dealing with difficult home situations.