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Summary
Summary
Jenny Nimmo's award-winning SNOW SPIDER TRILOGY is back as an exciting Orchard Books fantasy series!
On Gwyn's 9th birthday, his grandmother tells him he may be a magician, like his Welsh ancestors. She gives him five gifts to help him--a brooch, a piece of dried seaweed, a tin whistle, a scarf, and a broken toy horse. One blustery day, unsure what to do with his newfound magic, Gwyn throws the brooch to the wind and receives a silvery snow spider in return. Will he be able to use this special spider to bring his missing sister, Bethan, home? THE SNOW SPIDER spins an icy, sparkly web of mystical intrigue that sets the stage for the next two books in this outstanding trilogy!
Author Notes
Born in Windsor, England in 1944, Nimmo's father died when she was only five. By the time she was fourteen, she had gone to two boarding schools and had joined a theater company in England. Her unstable childhood led to a series of diverse jobs where she worked in several fields as a nanny, a photographic researcher, and a floor manager at the BBC. At the BBC she became a director of Jackanory, a children's show. After having her first child, Nimmo left the BBC and began work on her first novel, "The Bronze Trumpeteer." Nimmo is best known for two series of fantasy novels: The Magician Trilogy (1986 to 1989), contemporary stories rooted in Welsh myth, and Children of the Red King (2002 to 2010), featuring Charlie Bone and other magically endowed school children. The Snow Spider, first of the Magician books, won the second annual Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the 1987 Tir na n-Og Award as the year's best original-English-language book with "authentic Welsh background". The Stone Mouse was highly commended for the 1993 Carnegie Medal.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
There is nothing like a hearty brogue to drop a listener into a faraway land, in this case Wales in olden times. Keating's wonderfully rich voice does just that. Though this first volume of a trilogy takes place in present-day Wales, the past is alive, especially when nine-year-old Gwyn realizes that he may have the powers of his namesake, a magician from centuries ago. At the center of this adventure, Gwyn sets out on a journey to find his sister, who disappeared on a nearby mountain, without a trace, on the day Gwyn turned five. Keating's reading of the tale is flawless. He easily ranges from the boy's excitement and anticipation to the wavery voice of his eccentric grandmother, Nain. It is Nain who gives Gwyn five gifts for his ninth birthday, each a small object that he must "give to the wind" in order to receive strange and magical things in return. The first and most helpful is the snow spider, Arianwen, who spins webs that allow Gywn to peer into other worlds. Keating spins the tale in a similar way; his mastery may well convince readers that this fictional world is real. Ages 9-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) This atmospheric fantasy starts with a boy, Gwyn, receiving five unusual gifts from his grandmother, Nain, on his ninth birthday. Thus begins a quest to find out whether he has inherited the gift of magic that returns once in every seven generations to his family and to discover what happened to his sister, who vanished mysteriously four years earlier. This new production is a worthy successor to a previous 1988 recording, as Keating's deep, rich voice, rolling musically over the Welsh words and phrases, effortlessly unravels the intricately descriptive sentences. Fans of Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising sequence and Nimmo's own Charlie Bone will find themselves swept up instantly in this first volume (winner of the Smarties Prize) of the series. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
For the first time in five years, Gwyn's mother marks his birthday with a party in their Welsh farmhouse. His father is unable to celebrate, for he sees it as the anniversary of the night when Gwyn's sister, Bethan, mysteriously disappeared. A convergence of events brings about changes: Gwyn learns that he is a wizard; his grandmother gives him a collection of apparently useless but soon-to-be magical objects; and a waif of a girl joins the family for a time. Nimmo weaves elements of Welsh folklore into a story that combines magical elements with a realistic modern setting. For a somewhat younger audience than Nimmo's Charlie Bone series, the Magician Trilogy promises a child-size adventure story with likable characters that are deftly, succinctly portrayed. Offer this accessible fantasy, the first in the Magician Trilogy, to the many young readers requesting books that are at least 100 pages (but preferably not much more). --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2006 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7 Gwyn's birthday is the anniversary of his sister's unexplained disappearance. Nain, Gwyn's grandmother, presents him with a collection of strange items including a brooch which eventually turns into a silver spider. Nain, either mad or a witch, looks for special powers of the ancestral magicians to be found again in Gwyn and tries to convince him that the magicians of the old Welsh legends are reborn in him. As the snow spider spins webs that reveal another world, Gwyn comes to understand that he is a magician, and he yearns for his heart's desire, the return of his sister. A new classmate enters his life and is befriended by his family. She is surely Bethan, the sister who had been taken to the other world seen in the web. The occurances of arcane and bizarre wonders increase extravagantly, almost out of control. But the reality of Gwyn, his parents, and the Welsh setting give this fantasy equilibrium and an appealing warmth. The pace is brisk and captivating. A good choice to lead into ``The Dark Is Rising'' series (Macmillan) by Susan Cooper. Lucy Hawley, Wescott School Library, Northbrook, Ill. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The five gifts Gwyn's grandmother, Nain, gives him on his tenth birthday fulfill her hope of awakening his inherited magical powers. Gwyn's farmer parents are impatient with Nain's ""supersititions""; but when Gwyn's first gift, a brooch, is torn away by the wind and replaced by a supernaturally lovely silver spider (Arianwen), he realizes that his talents are unusual. Arianwen's delicate web reveals an evanescent re-creation of Gwyn's sister, Bethan, mysteriously lost on the mountain on his birthday four years before. The vision vanishes; but soon an orphan, Eirlys, appears in the community; her resemblance to Bethan helps resolve Gwyn's parents' continuing bitterness and grief at Bethan's loss--even though, after a horrendous storm Gwyn inadvertently invokes through the fifth gift, Eirlys (who Gwyn now understands to be his lost sister) returns to an apparently happy afterlife. Nimmo, who lives in Wales, uses its fabled landscape and weather to good effect. Less convincing is the integration of magical powers into the life of an otherwise ordinary boy who, unfortunately, never rises above grandmother Nain's warning--that the gifts should not be misused--to the awe, dignity, and moral order implied in such books as Susan Cooper's. With its imaginative overlay and exploration of family dynamics, this would make a satisfying TV drama (an area where Nimmo has experience); as fiction, it lacks subtlety and logical links. Yet the tale is smoothly written and entertaining; and that entrancing spider suggests that Nimmo's next book will be of interest. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
A spell has been cast on Gwyn's family in THE SNOW SPIDER. Five strange gifts from his grandmother may help him to break it, but first he must discover if he truly is a magician. One night a mysterious snow spider appears and spins a web of magic. What lies beyond the snow spider's web?So begins Jenny Nimmo's classic seriesTHE MAGICIAN TRILOGY Excerpted from The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
