Snow & Rose

Snow & Rose
Emily Winfield Martin
Random House/Penguin, 2017 206 pages
Grades 3-6
Fairytale

Martin puts her own spin on the classic Grimm fairytale Snow White and Rose Red. Snow and Rose are opposites in both temperament and appearance, although are close as two sisters can get. When their privileged father disappears and is presumed dead their circumstances are greatly reduced. After getting evicted from their servant-filled house, their mother moves them to a small cabin in the woods where the small family begins the laborious task of overcoming grief and adjusting to limited resources. Snow and Rose venture into the woods for entertainment and it is here that they meet a new friend named Ivo, who lives with his family in a little house underground. Other encounters are less pleasant, as they meet dangerous looking huntsmen and help on several occasions a mean little man who does not appreciate their assistance and actually gives them grief for their troubles. As the weather starts to turn cold they encounter a large bear who is being pursued by the raggedy group of huntsmen. The bear spends the winter in their small cottage, only to return to the wild and the impending dangers of the hunters in the spring. When Ivo goes missing, it is assumed that the bear killed him. The girls know this not to be true and do their best to protect their friend. By book's end the whereabouts of Ivo is revealed, as is the true identity of the bear and the motivation of the mean little man. Snow, Rose and their mother never do regain the riches of the past, but do find a satisfying "happily ever after", or at least a happy and content present.

Picture book creator, Emily Winfield Martin, is a self-professed lover of fairytales, especially Snow White and Rose Red, which this original story is based on. Many elements of the original story are included in this retelling of the tale, yet Martin twisted some of the details to create her own rendition. The enchanting and timeless setting places readers into a dense Bavarian fairy tale forest where cranky gnomes could realistically be hunkered down wielding their nasty magic on a whim. Snow and Rose are one-dimensional stock fairy tale characters who are pure, brave and loyal and only disobey their mother when it means helping a friend, but this is a fairy tale and character development isn't the point. The point is good overcoming evil, a lush magical forest filled with unexpected people and things, where anything can happen, and fearlessly overcoming obstacles to find the happily ever after. The true stars of this book are the beautiful full-colored illustrations, which not only help to transport the reader into the story, but add a rich layer to the narrative. Kids who love fantasy and fairy tales, of which there are many reworkings of in recent years, will be the obvious audience for this book. Snow and Rose may draw readers to the original tale, which has disappeared from the public eye and is less known than the stories which have been "Disney-fied". I have been a fan of the story ever since reading Printz honor Tender Morsels when it came out about a decade ago. I only read it because it won the prestigious reward and at the time I found it to be dense and long and I didn’t fully understand it, yet its strangeness has stuck with me over the years, creating an interest in the tale in which it was based. This much simpler version, Snow and Rose, would make a wonderful read-aloud, especially on a cold winter day sipping hot chocolate while snuggled by the fire.