Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HFUWCE0 | Format: EPUB
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy Description
A luminous retelling of the Snow Queen, this is the story of unlikely heroine Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard who doesn't believe in anything that can't be proven by science.
She and her sister Alice are still grieving for their dead mother when their father takes a job in a strange museum in a city where it always snows. On her very first day in the museum Ophelia discovers a boy locked away in a long forgotten room. He is a prisoner of Her Majesty the Snow Queen. And he has been waiting for Ophelia's help.
As Ophelia embarks on an incredible journey to rescue the boy, everything that she believes will be tested. Along the way she learns more and more about the boy's own remarkable journey to reach her and save the world.
A story within a story, this is a modern day fairytale about the power of friendship, courage and love, and never ever giving up.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 6 hours and 19 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Listening Library
- Audible.com Release Date: January 28, 2014
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HFUWCE0
First off, you need to know that this book moves in two parallel worlds and timelines. One line is set in an unnamed place and tells the ancient story of the Snow Queen and the quest of the Boy With No Name to defeat her. That story involves wizards, a mystical sword, and magic. In the second line, a modern girl finds the Boy imprisoned in a museum. He failed in his quest and has bided his time as the Queen's prisoner, waiting to renew his task in this modern world. So, we keep drifting back and forth between the old fairy tale story and the modern fantasy/quest, with the Boy telling the old story even as he lives the new story. The result is dreamy and magical but also modern and grounded in the present. The effect is immersive and elegant.
Our heroine, Ophelia, is introduced as a modern, prickly, no-nonsense, and apparently humorless girl. We learn about her disinterested older sister, the loss of her Mother and the consequent distraction of her Father, and we begin to sympathize. Still, at the outset her emotional range seems only to embrace moodiness, boredom, sadness and a detached sort of melancholy. But we also sense something else, something heroic, deep inside and waiting to be triggered
Our hero, the fairy tale Nameless Boy, is found by Ophelia where he has been imprisoned in a forgotten room in an impossibly immense museum. He is old, insubstantial, just a voice on the other side of a locked door. He feels ancient, long suffering, resigned to his fate and lost. Will he regain his strength and his heroic role when teamed with Ophelia?
The Boy asks Ophelia to help him, and she must decide whether to become involved, again, in the world.
This book's story is a free-wheeling retelling of the Snow Queen fairy tale.
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee
Illustrated by Yoko Tanaka
Knopf Books for Young Readers 2014
240 pages
Children’s Fiction: Fantasy; Adventure
“Unlikely heroine Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard doesn't believe in anything that can't be proven by science. She and her sister Alice are still grieving for their dead mother when their father takes a job in a strange museum in a city where it always snows. On her very first day in the museum Ophelia discovers a boy locked away in a long forgotten room. He is a prisoner of Her Majesty the Snow Queen. And he has been waiting for Ophelia's help.
As Ophelia embarks on an incredible journey to rescue the boy everything that she believes will be tested. Along the way she learns more and more about the boy's own remarkable journey to reach her and save the world.
A story within a story, this a modern day fairytale is about the power of friendship, courage and love, and never ever giving up.”
A lover of children’ stories, I was excited to receive an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, and on reading Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy I discovered my excitement was warranted. Described as a tweaked and updated re telling of Anderson’s The Snow Queen, Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy incorporates all of the elements of a good children’ story and utilizes both action and metaphor to convey it’s message of hope, friendship, strength and love.
Written for the Middle school reader, author Karen Foxlee has created a rich, tightly woven fantasy that captures the imagination, is easy to read and operates on several levels.
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