This author! I’ve now read two of her books and I’m a big fan. A sad, older couple want a child so badly. So when they build a darling little snow girl and wrap her in a red scarf, is it any wonder when they “imagine” her alive? In deep winter in Alaska, a little girl with striking blond hair starts to visit their homestead and in her own way helps them survive their first harsh winter there. But she refuses to stay with them; how can she survive? Their closest homesteading family (set in the early 1900s) become good friends with the couple but simply do not believe that the girl exists, much less survives the harshest of winters. The story follows this couple and the snow girl into their old age. This story is beautiful and beautifully written. ( )

Honestly, no. I'm jsut not connected to the characters and think people are giving this book waaaay too much hype. It could have been much better but if you don't get the reader hooked by the 100th page, writing is not your forte. At first I thought it was a book for middle schoolers by the simplistic way the characters were written. Ivey doesn't write dialogues well at all. ( )

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is a wonderful fairytale for adults(and whoever fancies it) set against the harsh backdrop of 1920s Alaska. Sometimes a little of what you fancy does you good ! And so I fancied a fairytale and it did me the world of good!!!

This is the story of Jack and Mabel a childless couple who move to Alaska to farm and to etch a living from the harsh and frozen land. A man and woman set in their ways, Jack the stubborn sort who is too proud to ask for help and Mabel who fears friendship and both mourning the loss of their only child in their own lonely way.

One night after a heavy snowfall they make a snow child and adorning the figure with mittens and scarf. The following morning the snow child has been trampled and the mittens and scarf are missing and the couple spot a small figure running through the trees. Mabel recalls an old Russian Fairy tale about a snow child coming to life and hopes she has made her longed for child that she can love. Is she real or a just imagined by Mabel and Jack?

There is so much to love about this story, I was so excited to read an adult fairytale, The details of Pioneer life in Alaska are beautifully written along with the description of the harsh winter environment and the animals naive to this country.

This is a novel rich in characters and prose and for a debut novel it is extremely well written. A tale of love and loss of friendships and hardships. A book that will stay with you long after you finish. ( )

Poignant, moving, starkly beautiful, an ode to impermanence.

Mabel and Jack are a middle-aged couple who move to Alaska in the 1920s. They struggle to carve out a life on a barren homestead in an unforgiving landscape. Can they even survive the extreme winter? When a strange little girl appears out of nowhere, the childless couple is stunned. Have they conjured her out of snow and longing?

The Snow Child is a tender story lovingly told. The description of winter in the Alaskan wilderness is starkly beautiful, the portrayal of an older couple realistic and moving. A genre-crossing blend of historical fiction and fairy-tale re-telling, The Snow Child is a moving exploration of the harsh realities in nature, our tenuous place within it, and the very human yearning to feel fulfilled.

Snow is the perfect metaphor for impermanence, for all that is fleeting--joy and sorrow, childhood and innocence, for the miracle of life itself. ( )

Beautifully written. An engrossing retelling of the Russian folktale Snegurochka set in Alaska. The winter is rendered as a character alongside Mabel, her husband, and her snow child. I am not an enormous fan of the ending but that is partially because of my knowledge of Slavic folklore - I suppose that those coming in fresher would not have the annoyed reaction I did to the choices Ivey made. Regardless, this is a nice summer read when you want something snowy! ( )