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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | J FICTION YOL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION YOL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION YOL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J FICTION YOL | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
With her black hair, red lips, and lily-white skin, Summer is as beautiful as her father's garden. And her life in the mountains of West Virginia seems like a fairy tale; her parents sing and dance with her, Cousin Nancy dotes on her, and she is about to get a new baby brother. But when the baby dies soon after he's born, taking Summer's mama with him, Summer's fairy-tale life turns grim. Things get even worse when her father marries a woman who brings poisons and magical mirrors into Summer's world. Stepmama puts up a pretty face, but Summer suspects she's up to no good - and is afraid she's powerless to stop her.
This Snow White tale filled with magic and intrigue during the early twentieth century in Appalachia will be hard to forget.
Author Notes
Jane Yolen was born February 11, 1939 in New York City. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1960 and a master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. After college, she became an editor in New York City and wrote during her lunch break. She sold her first children's book, Pirates in Petticoats, at the age of 22. Since then, she has written over 300 books for children, young adults, and adults.
Her other works include the Emperor and the Kite, Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and The Devil's Arithmetic. She has won numerous awards including the Kerlan Award, the Regina Medal, the Keene State Children's Literature Award, the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, the World Fantasy Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Drawing from her eponymous short story of 2000, Yolen offers a gripping 20th-century adaptation of Snow White, starring Snow in Summer, a girl growing up in West Virginia in the 1940s. Summer's beloved Papa, bereft over the death of his wife and son, is seduced by a beautiful but wicked witch, who marries him and takes over the household, using her wiles to render Papa and the rest of the town helpless while she abuses her stepdaughter. Only widowed Cousin Nancy resists the witch and offers aid to Summer via some down-home magic. "Your caul, child.... I retrieved it right after you were born. Salted it down, let it dry over the rim of a bowl. I've kept it for you all this time." Based on the traditional Snow White-complete with a magic mirror and seven dwarfs (more or less), along with some Appalachian folklore, post-Depression era culture, and snake-handling evangelicals-this story is beautifully written and deliciously scary, with just enough differences from familiar versions to keep readers guessing. Ages 10-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Snow in Summer, born with a caul in Depression-era West Virginia, is seven when her mama dies birthing her baby brother and her papa goes into a decline from grief. For four years Summer has no mama but Cousin Nancy; then Summer's papa, "besot" by a haint he meets on the mountain, abruptly takes a new wife, driving warm Cousin Nancy away. Summer at first laps up her stepmother's calculated affection, but soon that affection is bounded by rules and conditions that Snow (so re-nicknamed by Stepmama) can't possibly meet. Vignettes from other characters' perspectives reveal a more sinister plot -- Stepmama is slowly killing off Papa for his land, with plans to take seven years of Snow's life for her own when she inducts the girl into her own dark craft. Yes, there is a magic mirror, a hunter tasked with cutting out Snow's heart and roasting it, and "six small men who mine" (the seventh is away at university). But in Yolen's retelling of "Snow White," the magic is tilted toward Pentecostal snake handling, herbal wisdom, and country beliefs like the protective powers of the caul. The details of Appalachia that pervade the tale, including narrative language both poetic and specifically mountain, are so authentic and true that, far from being a wizened offshoot of a European rootstock, this story branches out into its own full, American inflorescence. anita l. burkam From HORN BOOK, Copyright The Horn Book, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Summer's grieving father suddenly brings a new wife to his 1940s West Virginia mountain home. Summer, born Snow in Summer, is glad to have someone to fill the void left by her mother's death, but Stepmama brings only coldness and a sense of wrongness into the house. When Summer won't become her stepmother's willing tool, she is put in harm's way, only to be saved from death by her own determination and seven fine men. This imaginative recasting of the traditional Snow White fairy tale is accented with just the right amount of cultural touches to give it an authentic Appalachian flavor. Summer's story is told as a recollection, which mitigates some of the scariness that arises from the dark arts at play. With so much of the book focused on the relationship between Stepmama and Summer (called Snow by her new mother), the resolution comes too fast and feels rushed. Still, fans of fairy-tale novelizations ought to be enchanted by Yolen's imaginative spin.--Welch, Cindy Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-As she did in Briar Rose (Tor, 1992), Yolen retells a classic fairy tale. The protagonist, named Snow in Summer but called Summer by her doting parents, is enjoying an idyllic childhood in post-Depression Appalachia. Papa's singing accompanies all he does, and both his garden and Summer thrive because of his attention. Mama surrounds her daughter with her warmth and love. But when Mama and her new baby are lost in childbirth, Summer and her father find themselves lost. Cousin Nancy attempts to fill the void for Summer, but Papa becomes more distant with each passing day, spending every evening playing music at his wife's gravestone. When he returns from the cemetery one evening with a new woman on his arm, Cousin Nancy warns that he has been besotted by a witch. So begins Summer's journey toward a showdown with Stepmama. Yolen's "Snow White" follows the familiar path of the childhood story but adapts well to its more modern setting and characters. Period details feel authentic to both the time and the story line. The use of Appalachian turns of phrase may leave some readers stumped, but the language adds to the story's firm grounding in its new setting. A well-imagined and well-told addition to collections of retold fairy tales.-Colleen S. Banick, Tomlinson Middle School, Fairfield, CT (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Just So Stories, giving the narrative a metafictive lift. A quiet and compelling story more closely tied to the classical fairy tale than the now-popular Disney version. (author's note) (Fantasy. 9-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Mirror, mirror on the wall... "Fear the Hunter," the mirror's masked face said, startling me out of my memories. "Fear the Hunter, fear the knife, Fear the edge that takes a life." The mirror spoke as if Hunter was capitalized, like a name or a rank of some kind. "The Hunter? Who's that?" I asked, but the mirror had gone silent. In the silence I heard a car door slam right outside. Stepmama was home. I slipped back out of her room so fast my shadow had trouble keeping up, and I headed down the hallway as if going to the bathroom. That was where she found me. Excerpted from Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All by Jane Yolen 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.
