The Snow Queen: A Retelling for Curious Readers

A look inside

The opening of The Snow Queen: A Retelling for Curious Readers, free to read.

1. 

   Now listen! Once a wicked troll made a magic mirror. In it, good things looked poor and mean, and bad things looked big. His students flew it into the sky for a joke, but it fell and smashed into millions of splinters. A splinter in the eye made people see only what was wrong. A splinter in the heart turned it to ice.

2. 

   High above a big town, Kai could step from his attic window straight to Gerda's. Only a roof gutter lay between, with two boxes of roses set across it. They were not brother and sister, but each was the other's dearest friend. All summer they sat on little stools under the roses and played.

3. 

   Winter iced the windows over. Kai and Gerda melted peepholes in the frost with pennies warmed on the stove. "The white bees are swarming," said Grandmother. "Do the bees choose a queen?" asked Kai. "Yes. The Snow Queen flies where the swarm is thickest. At night she peeks in at windows, and they freeze into frost flowers."