“Magic is “messy and dangerous and filled with longing,” we learn in this brave tale of grief, villainy and redemption that borrows from the story of the Snow Queen. Set in a vast, chilly museum, the tale brings together a valiant girl, a charmed boy, a magical sword and a clock ticking down to the end of the world.”—The Wall Street Journal
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 a modern day fairytale about the power of friendship, courage and love, and never ever giving up.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
188 of 197 people found the following review helpful.
Exactly the sort of book I wold have liked as a youngster.
By Rob Slaven
As usual I received this book for free just so I'd review it. Also as usual I'll give my candid opinions below.Since this is a child's book I don't judge by my usual criteria but explore two basic questions. The first is whether I would want my child to read it. To this I say most assuredly yes. It has a strong lesson to teach about following your own path, bravery and never giving up and being systematic in everything you do. As a fairly logical person I would like every chance to influence my children in that particular regard especially! More importantly, the book contains nothing one could consider even remotely of concern for young audiences. No sex, no drugs, just a bit of adventure, petty theft and lying to one's parents. OK, maybe not the best example but not like some of the terrible YA stuff I've come across.The second question is whether I think my kids would want to read it at all. This is always difficult to judge but it does have characters that kids can relate to and a pretty entertaining story line. The vocabulary is not especially daunting and the action picks up from the every first paragraph so I think this one has a chance at setting the hook.So in summary, I was entertained enough reading it and I think kids will be too. I have no concerns about the lesson they'll get out of it and they might learn something positive too if they're not careful. Exactly the sort of book I wold have liked as a youngster.PS: It is always my endeavor to provide helpful reviews. If you find my review helpful please vote appropriately. If you do not, then please leave me a comment indicating what you want to know and I'll be sure to do better next time.
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful.A Marvel of Imagination and Craftsmanship
By Pop Bop
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 triggeredOur 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. It is so good that I stopped reading after the Prologue and reread "The Snow Queen" in order to appreciate the subtle connections suggested by the author. (There is an excellent free Kindle "The Snow Queen" available on Amazon, here, The Snow Queen (Fairy eBooks)).The Prologue to this book sets out the backstory of how and why, hundreds of years ago, in a different world, the Snow Queen imprisoned the Boy. We then start the modern story that begins with Ophelia and her meeting with the modern imprisoned Boy. He tells her his story, and recounts the facts that connect the old tale to the modern tale. He asks for her help in freeing him, helping him to find his lost sword, and helping him to defeat the modern version of the Snow Queen, and save both his alternate world and this world.At this point, having read the Boy's story and having placed all of the fairy tale elements in the modern world, it is very helpful and rewarding to go back and read the Prologue again. Almost every word in the Prologue illuminates and explains, or foreshadows, what is happening and what is going to happen in the rest of the book.Here's the best part. The story and the writing are like quicksilver. As it develops and picks up speed and clarity the tale can be terrifying, tender, comic, darkly humorous, touching, insightful, inspirational. It is fantastical and magical in all of the ways those words are used. Friendship, familial love, bravery, hope - it's all there. This book is remarkably well written, and is both accessible to young readers and extremely rewarding for older readers who can catch the many sly or subtle insights and references.What a marvelous find. (Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Magical Little Book!
By Stacie Hevener
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen FoxleeIllustrated by Yoko TanakaKnopf Books for Young Readers 2014240 pagesChildren’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.As an adult reader of the book I recognized the “unlikely’ heroine as exactly the type of child called for and often utilized to illustrate that real heroes are ordinary people- just like the reader- who behave heroically in extra ordinary circumstances.As required in a story of this genre the plot centers on a quest. In this case the quest is twofold; Ophelia must find the sword of the Marvelous Boy before his time runs out and the villainous Snow Queen plunges the world into a permanent winter of misery while saving her father and sister who, after the death of her mother, have retreated into their grief and run the risk of permanent isolation and despair.Ophelia’s father, who has dealt with the loss of his wife by burying himself in his work as “the leading international expert on swords”, takes his daughters Alice and Ophelia with him to a museum in an unnamed city of perpetual snow where he has been charged by its curator, Miss Kaminski, (who is quite obviously, evil the Snow Queen- no spoiler here) to create a grand exhibition of rare antique swords.Ophelia finds herself in a huge labyrinth of a building where, given her inquisitive and scientific nature, she explores areas of the museum off limits to the public. It is in one of these restricted hallways, tucked away in a secret room, that she finds the Marvelous Boy.The Marvelous Boy, who has been a prisoner of the Snow Queen for three hundred years tells Ophelia of the dangers ahead though a series of flashbacks in which he relates his original quest to deliver a magical sword to the one person who can defeat the Snow Queen. The Marvelous Boy, whose name was taken from him by “wizards of east, west and middle” to keep him safe because “you might think a name is just a name, nothing but a word, but that is not the case. Your name is tacked to you … and it wasn't just the memory of my name, but me myself. A tiny part of me that they took and stored away.” serves as both the impetus of Ophelia’s Quest and proof that giving of one’s self can often help us find qualities we did not know we possess to help us help others.Complete with hidden rooms, secret doorways, treasures, trials and monsters, Ophelia must navigate through several challenges to stop the Snow Queen/Miss Kaminski’s plot to destroy the world and Ophelia’s family along with it.Filled with self-doubt, fear and grief Ophelia relies on her innate curiosity, natural pluckiness and the love of her mother filling her heart and strengthening her resolve, Ophelia shows us that true heroism lies in a person’s heart and that we all of the potential to perform heroic deeds every day. Through its likeable and identifiable characters this story demonstrates that if we hold true to the message of the book; that kindness, faith, love, loyalty and friendship are the qualities that will see us through the most trying of times, we can all do our part to ‘save the world’.While the overall plot of the story is not anything new, the pacing is even and propels the action at a fluid pace. With the exception of the Snow Queen, who serves as the arch typical villain and the Marvelous Boy who, while likeable and endearing, serves to illustrate how many of us set off blindly in search of some goal in life; neither of whom need further embellishment, the characters are realistic, well fleshed out, identifiable, sympathetic and engaging.Foxlee’s writing is tight and laden with imagery, giving us a multi- level adventure rich in symbolism and subtle moral messages of honesty kindness and faith. Yoko Tanaka’ illustrations are simply beautiful and serve to enhance imagery evoked by the writer’s words.I am grateful to the publisher for sending this book and allowing me to go on this wonderful adventure.
