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clairebartholomew549's review against another edition
5.0
Entering my reviews over from my old Goodreads profile I unearthed recently...here are some super sappy thoughts from 2009-era 14-year-old Claire!
The graphics in this book are simply amazing, and the story itself is enthralling.
The graphics in this book are simply amazing, and the story itself is enthralling.
calistareads's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
calistareads's review against another edition
3.0
Back when I lived in Ann Arbor, I dear book friend gave me a copy of this. I haven't gotten around to reading it until now.
This story is written like a dream. It's like this whole huge kingdom in a dream.
The usurper stole the kingdom from the royal family. The daughter of the king survived. She is now about to retake her kingdom. She is writing a letter from her room about the whole experience.
The world is a world of ice and snow, or set in winter. It reminded me or Russia for some reason. The writing is middle grade and nothing seems to have much consequences. The royal attitude that is natural to the girl is grating. They put a whole lot of importance on being royal. Like only royals can be brave, good people and fight for others.
The language is beautiful and the artwork that Chris Van Allsburg does is beautiful. An interesting little quick story. Different from what I've been reading. I'm glad I read it, but it's not a book I would encourage someone to put at the top of their TBR.
This story is written like a dream. It's like this whole huge kingdom in a dream.
The usurper stole the kingdom from the royal family. The daughter of the king survived. She is now about to retake her kingdom. She is writing a letter from her room about the whole experience.
The world is a world of ice and snow, or set in winter. It reminded me or Russia for some reason. The writing is middle grade and nothing seems to have much consequences. The royal attitude that is natural to the girl is grating. They put a whole lot of importance on being royal. Like only royals can be brave, good people and fight for others.
The language is beautiful and the artwork that Chris Van Allsburg does is beautiful. An interesting little quick story. Different from what I've been reading. I'm glad I read it, but it's not a book I would encourage someone to put at the top of their TBR.
impreader's review against another edition
4.0
This is a lovely fairy tale, ferrous in its truth-touching, deft in its detail, and startling in its heroine's child-eye simple-complexity.
cosmogyral's review
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
3.5
This seems like it would be a lot of fun to read out loud, with quirky, fluid word choices. It would have played best with me at the heroine's own age of ten, though as an adult with the politics I have, I grew frustrated at the very end by the way divine right of a monarch propelled everything about the plot. Still special, worth sharing with kids in your life who like to push their vocabularies and can handle a scene of violent death.
eupomene's review
4.0
Mark Helprin has a beautiful imagination, which he uses full force in this story of a city and its queen. The queen is 10 years old and she has returned from exile in the forest to her snowy realm which has been overthrown by an evil usurper. The city is "in winter" for more reasons than seasonal, it is held in thrall by a cold and ruthless person. The little girl queen must work and wait, and find her friends before making herself known.
Helprin's descriptions of the colossal palace and all its different workers defies explanation here. He is assisted by Chris Van Allsburg, of all artists the one most suited to illustrate a children's story by Helprin. The pictures are quite lovely, to say the least. I feel this will certainly be a book to read to my daughter when she is old enough, though I fear my husband will claim that privilege first.
Helprin's descriptions of the colossal palace and all its different workers defies explanation here. He is assisted by Chris Van Allsburg, of all artists the one most suited to illustrate a children's story by Helprin. The pictures are quite lovely, to say the least. I feel this will certainly be a book to read to my daughter when she is old enough, though I fear my husband will claim that privilege first.
letitiaharmon's review
3.0
This is an interesting little book and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Possibly it's because it is the only one in the series I have read. There are things I absolutely adore about it. The writing defies genre and is beautiful. As a child, I think I would have been extremely drawn to this story, not just because of the queen-returning-to-rule narrative, but because of the odd specificity of details and extreme over-categorization of everything, especially food. As an adult, it doesn't follow expected story and plot patterns, and while that might not be a bad thing, I find myself kind of scratching my head about what this little book is actually about. It ends too abruptly, the main character has no arc, and while it could be some kind of political commentary, the allegory is not committed to, or at least not strong enough. However, I am intrigued enough to probably look up the other two in the series and see if I can piece together a better understanding of the writer's viewpoint.