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Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jessica Day George, Jessica Day George
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 131856
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3
ISBN: 1599901099
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.2
EAN: 9781599901091
ASIN: 1599901099
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
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Product Description
Blessed—or cursed—with an ability to understand animals, the Lass (as she’s known to her family) has always been an oddball. And when an isbjorn (polar bear) seeks her out, and promises that her family will become rich if only the Lass will accompany him to his castle, she doesn’t hesitate. But the bear is not what he seems, nor is his castle, which is made of ice and inhabited by a silent staff of servents. Only a grueling journey on the backs of the four winds will reveal the truth: the bear is really a prince who’s been enchanted by a troll queen, and the Lass must come up with a way to free him before he’s forced to marry a troll princess.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 What's in a name? February 22, 2008
E. R. Bird (Manhattan, NY)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
As I see it, there are two different ways to adapt a fairy tale into a full-length novel. You can either reinterpret the entire shebang with a whole new spin on the formerly familiar (ala A Curse Dark as Gold or The Magic Circle) or you can take the essential parts of the original tale and just fill them out with some depth and padding (ala Beauty). "Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow" falls squarely into the latter category. Now if I was a fairy tale snob I might get all huffy that Jessica Day George's book stays so close to the original fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". And maybe I'd even have a reason to object, if it weren't for the fact that George's text is just so enjoyable to read. Basically it all comes down to a likable heroine, a great story, wonderful Norwegian touches, and a tale that will age beautifully as the years go by. When it comes to adapting a fairy tale into a full-length novel, George writes with a steady hand.
She never had a name, this small girl, the last born in her family. The daughter of a poor woodcutter, the child's mother is so disappointed to have yet another female mouth to feed that everyone refers to the girl as simply "the pika". Not having a name can be dangerous when you live in a land of trolls who'd like nothing better than to snatch you away. Fortunately, one day the pika frees a white reindeer trapped in the wood and it gives her two gifts as thanks: a name and the ability to understand the words of animals. The second gift seems great but turns against the lass when a huge white polar bear enters her home one night and demands that she come with him to his palace in the north. If she does so for just one year then her family will be rich and she will be free to go back. But what is it about this palace that seems so odd? What do the strange inscriptions say? Why do the servants disappear when she asks questions? And why, oh why, is there a strange man sleeping next to her in bed every night?
I think that more than almost any other fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" has always been one of my favorites. It's this bizarre amalgamation of a bunch of different stories. There's the man under a beastly spell like in Beauty and the Beast. There's the girl looking at his forbidden face at night like in the tale of Cupid and Psyche. And then there's the long journey as the girl encounters magical beings in a quest to regain the man she loves, as in The Snow Queen. Stories where girls go out and get a job done appeal to me, and George's heroine is likable while still making the requisite mistakes needed to keep the plot going.
What George does well is to take the original tale, stick with it practically to the letter, and then explain some of the moments that don't make as much sense out of context. For example, why would the troll princess love something as simple as a golden spindle or a golden carding comb? Well, trolls have an obsession with human objects and try to act as human as possible sometimes. That, in turn, reminded me of the polar bears in the book The Golden Compass, and so it goes. The pacing is also pretty good, though I was surprised that it took us to page 181 for the lass to betray the isbjorn (the other word for polar bear).
Of course, there aren't many moments of deep introspection in this novel. For example, when the heroine makes a deal with the isbjorn on the condition that her family become wealthy, he promptly forces another bear to kill itself so that her no good brother can find the corpse and become rich. You'd think the lass would think long and hard about the consequences of her choices, but I suppose she has other stuff on her mind. And for an all-powerful Troll Queen who inspires fear in her minions, the final showdown between her and the lass is accurate to the original tale but may strike some as vaguely anti-climactic when compared to contemporary fantasy face-offs.
I also would have liked it if a little more time had been spent examining the fact that no woman has ever stayed a whole year in the polar bear's frozen palace without somehow seeing his face at night. Clearly this original tale was one of those curiosity-killed-the-cat stories ala Pandora. I don't know that it's a fair criticism for a story to make these days, though. It would have been nice if George has spoken a little bit about how unfair it is to withhold the rules in a game and then blame a player for not following them to the letter. Ah well.
In terms of age appropriateness, there's no reason in the world that a fairy tale loving ten-year-old wouldn't enjoy "Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow". Yes, part of the story involves a girl who keeps finding a man coming in and sleeping in her bed, but he's always full clothed and never so much as speaks to her. Really, this is just an adventure novel couched in a great old tale. The kind of thing everyone can enjoy, and many will.
 poor rewriting of an exciting tale February 6, 2008
R. Goodman (salt lake)
8 out of 17 found this review helpful
I felt like this book had great potential, but was sadly disappointed in the writing. It was awful. There were a lot of plot holes and very little character development.
The story is about a young lass, the youngest daughter of a woodcutter and unwanted by her mother. Thus, she is never named which we are told repeatedly is dangerous, especially if there are trolls about. She is given a gift of understanding animal talk and a secret name (that she tells no one) by a white stag she saves when a young girl. When a white bear comes years later and promises her family wealth if she will stay with him for one year and a day, she agrees and is whisked away to an ice castle, owned by a troll. A man comes to bed with her the first night she is there, and every subsequent night thereafter. She wants to see his face, but the candles are always gone so she brings one from home after a brief visit and looks at him--big mistake. Cursed to be a bear by day and a man by night, he is whisked away by a troll princess to become her husband. The lass travels to the land of ice and snow and is able to rescue the prince and they live happily ever after.
The only person who even knows that the lass has a name is her brother, and he tells her to keep it a secret. At the end when she travels to the country where the trolls are, I expected her name to be important in getting the prince back. It's been a big deal that trolls are especially dangerous to those without names, and everyone thinks she doesn't have a name. But it never comes up. She simply tells the prince her name. How disappointing to set the stage for something exciting, and nothing happens. What was the point?
Then there's the whole thing of while she's at the ice castle with the bear and a man comes into her room every night and lays on her bed with her. She wants to see who it is, but she can never find any candles at night. She doesn't have any sort of reaction to it except for sleeping on the floor for a few days, and I think a stranger coming to my bed at night would be a reason to not be able to sleep--at least. But from the lass, nothing. She goes home for a week and while there tells her sister about the man who spends the night with her (breaking a promise to the bear that she wouldn't talk about what happens at the ice castle) and the sister convinces her to take one of their mother's candles to look at the man while he's asleep. A couple of dumb things--first, I'm thinking that the candles disappear because of some sort of spell. No, at the end we find out that the prince actually hid them himself before he fell asleep, and unhid them in the morning when he woke up. Huh? Why couldn't the lass have hidden one of the candles that was already in her room before they were hidden by the prince? What was preventing her? Why? I seriously want George to explain that to me. If it had to do with the fact that her mother's candles had herbs in them that made the girl sneeze and woke the prince up, then she should've come up with a better reason for the lass to not be able to find candles at the castle at night. It's just dumb.
Second, she doesn't look at the night visitor for months after she brought the candle back to the castle, and then when she does it's so she can tell her sister that she did. She's had the night companion for ten months and suddenly she decides she should look, two months before her imprisonment is over. Her motivation lacked real cognitive reasoning. George did not give the lass a compelling reason to look--at least not in my opinion.
Then, after the lass' journey to the land of ice and snow to rescue the prince from the troll princess, she tries to devise a way to get in to speak to him. The troll princess loves all things human so the lass makes a deal- she can see her prince that night in exchange for some human artifact thingy. That night the prince is drugged and the narrator doesn't get to talk to him. So the next night the lass enters into the same deal. Guess what, the prince is drugged again. DUH!!!! Who is dumb enough to be surprised that the same thing happens? Couldn't the lass have thought of making a better deal? I felt like George just didn't have any better ideas so the poor lass is stuck looking extremely stupid for doing the same thing, and (surprise!) getting the same result. But that was okay, because the lass miraculously meets her brothers long lost love and she has the run of the castle even though she's human and can slip a note to the prince so that he doesn't drink the drug the third night. (Because the lass entered into the same deal-again!) Ugh.
Also, the troll princess has actually done the same thing to many princes (always princes except for once because the man was exceptionally handsome) and as the lass is making her journey to the land of ice and snow, she meets many of the poor woman who looked while the men slept and lost them forever to the troll princess (trolls live longer than humans) who made the poor men into husbands. What I don't get is this--these princes were turned into bears and forced to find some girl to stay with them for one year and a day. If the girls had done this without looking at the prince's face at night, the princes would've been freed from the troll--but the girls always looked, always. The lass is lucky because she can understand animal talk, but these other girls couldn't. So for them, these huge, great big bears come and grab them and take them away and how are they supposed to know what's going on? They obviously weren't asked like the lass was. And after the terror of being kidnapped by a huge white bear, they still fall in love with the bear enough to follow him at least part way and waste the rest of their lives pining for them far away from their families? I just want a reason, an explanation. Is that too much to ask? I think not.
Okay, those are just a few examples of some annoying plot holes--though there are many I could offer. But what were even more glaringly missing were good developed characters. We're told that the lass and the bear have meals together while at the ice castle but we actually never see the conversations. The Bear is in it very little. So at the end when they have their night talking together (thanks to the lass' brother's long lost love and her note) and they're professing their love, I laughed out loud. I, as the audience, never got to know the bear so the love scene fell flat. I never believed that the lass felt anything for the bear, or for her night companion, so it was stupid when they were saying they loved each other. Also, the lass was just stupid. I didn't like what I did know about her, but there really wasn't much to get to know. The servants at the ice castle were like cardboard cutouts.
The fact that the lass is a woodcutters daughter and the bears a prince is never resolved.
And what was the point of the wolf as a sidekick? There wasn't any. I expected him to help her with something, but he never did. He just followed her around. Pointless.
I really did not like this book. The ending was ridiculous and stupid. The plot, characters, and motivations all felt contrived and unrealistic. I didn't especially think the writing was grand, just average, so it didn't help cover up the plot holes that abounded.
 Polar bears, wolves, trolls, oh my - yes! January 18, 2008
J. D. Mattson
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I loved and enjoyed Dragon Slippers (the previous book by this author), but I was blown away by the writing in this book. I thought it was a beautiful re-imagining of an already arresting legend. How can you possibly go wrong with a strong heroine whose best friend is a wolf and who befriends and must help a talking polar bear? There are such beautifully described passages - it made me want to go to Norway, and I'm not much of a cold weather fan. I think it deserves an award, but I have lost all faith in the ALA awards these days. I thought the Printz awards were making up for the random and obscure choices for the Newbery and Caldecott recent choices of books that no child or young person would be interested in picking up and reading, but I've seen some strange choices lately! So, I give it my own award: my #1 must read for 2008!
George is a master storyteller January 26, 2008
Just Me (Far Far Away)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Reading one of Jessica Day George's novels is like being told a story personally by the author, at a storytelling festival. You can literally hear the character's voice inflections and excitement in your mind as the story unfolds little by little.
The characters in this book are as real as people I know, and I never found myself thinking something felt unrealistic, even though Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow is very much a fantasy. George's twists on the original fairytale are very different from anything I have read before.
The lass's brother, Hans Peter, is especially likable, and I found myself wanting a prequel to this story so I could know every detail of what happened when he was . . . well, I don't want to give away any spoilers! But he is a very compelling character who really drew me in.
I loved how much detail George wove into the story without interrupting the flow of a scene. I felt like I knew every inch of that ice castle, down to the very last carving in the great hall.
Just like George's debut novel, Dragon Slippers (an all time favorite of mine now!), I found humor in even the most perilous of situations. It takes a lot of talent to pull that off without having it seem forced, and George is a master at it.
Very highly recommended!
"Whirlwind" retelling of a Unique Tale...exciting and appropriate for young readers March 13, 2008
homeschooler (Misawa, Japan)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed pre-reading this book before handing it over to my 8 yr old daughter -- I knew she would fall in love with it as well. I was right; as soon as she finished it (which only took her a few days), she declared triumphantly that it is her favorite book ever. We've recently read many fairy tales by other great authors such as Gail Carson Levine, Adrienne KressAlex and the Ironic Gentleman, Brittney Ryan The Legend of Holly Claus (Julie Andrews Collection), Dave Barry Peter and the Starcatchers Peter and the Shadow Thieves (The Starcatchers) Peter and the Secret of Rundoon (The Starcatchers), and Shannon Hale (least appropriate for younger readers and I will pre-read each one by her). My point being, I believe that Ms. George is among the best. I suppose I would have to agree with another reviewer's comment about the lack of serious depth to some of the characters, but it still deserves 5 stars because they are nonetheless interesting and the story still pulls you in and sums up as greatly satisfying. In my opinion, not every detail needs to be exposed; in fact, much of the charm of this particular fairy tale is its mystery as well as its uniqueness. The girl's family/home is rather heartwrenching and compelling; the ice palace, bear, and servants are invitingly mysterious; and the troll castle scenes are flat out amusing (although indeed rather frustrating)! The original fairy tale from which this is retold is indeed a strange one, and Ms. George did an excellent job at keeping the feeling of the original -- all while adding some enjoyable depth to it, as well as keeping it appropropriate for younger audiences. The author's snapshots of human nature accurately capture certain angles of character inherant in our species -- for better or for worse. This curious and assertive girl's attempt to solve a problem/mystery only causes worse trouble and frustration (and of course most readers familiar with the original story will be trying to warn our young "heroine" to STOP...DON'T DO IT!!! However, most of us would do the same (if not worse)-- hindsight is 20/20! So just how far will she go to attempt a happily ever after for those she seeks to help?
While my daughter and I were anxious to get a follow-up on Dragon Slippers...this far surpassed our expectations during our wait! Sun, Moon, Ice, and Snow was very difficult to put down, and while I don't re-read many books (don't have time for that), I will look forward to reading this one again -- and hopefully soon! Bravo!!!
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