Breadcrumbs

"Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu is a book not easily classified. Equal parts fairy tale adapted from "The Snow Queen" and an exploration of friendship, loss and the power of imagination, it grabbed my attention and didn't let go. I loved the writing, the verbal imagery, and the characters. And although it's often true that you cannot judge a book by its cover, with this book you can: the story lives up to Erin .McGuire's magical artwork

"It snowed right before Jack stopped talking to Hazel" opens the story; the snow is described as a magical event and the author manages to remind the reader of a time when he (or she) saw that magic as Hazel sees it, without falling into the trap of too much stage direction. Hazel greets the new snow in pajamas and socks, soaking in the magic; her mother comes to the door to tell her to come in out of the cold and get ready for school and to explain the science behind snowflakes - expertly showing how clueless adults can be when it comes to magic. Her best friend Jack hits her with a snowball and a snowballfight would have ensued right then if mom hadn't intervened. All this causes Hazel to miss her bus, requiring her mother to take her to school on icy streets which trip includes a pleading for Hazel to make new friends in addition to Jack.

Now all that might seem like rather mundane events, but in the first few pages the characters and their motivations are well established. Hazel's father has left them, her mother is overworked and tired but loving and gentle towards her daughter; Hazel is in a new school with no friend but Jack and with teachers who see her daydreaming as disobedience to the rules rather than the creativity recognized at her previous school. Fifth grade can be tough on any kid, but Hazel is having an especially difficult time coping. So Hazel tries "desperately not to disturb the universe" and just get through the day, looking forward to spending after school time with her best friend Jack.

With her mother's prodding and orchestration, Hazel slowly develops a friendship with Adelaide, who has an active imagination as well, and a very cool uncle who unlike most adults actually understands the magic the kids take for granted. He also understands kids, shown when he tells Adelaide's mother: "Come on, Lizzie. Kids can handle a lot more than you think they can. It's when they get to be grown up that you have to start worrying."

But this new friendship doesn't compare to her friendship with Jack, and when Jack inexplicably changes a couple days later after she hits him with a snowball, Hazel is bewildered, lost and confused. Unknown to her, the snowball contained a shard of a broken magic mirror and Jack has fallen under the spell of the evil Snow Queen.What she does realize is that Jack has grown distant and unimaginative and now says mean things like "stop being such a baby," something the real Jack would never say. No one seems to notice that Jack is not Jack and although her mother is sympathetic she tells Hazel that sometimes people just change, and Hazel must accept that fact as part of growing up.

"Breadcrumbs" is divided into two parts, the first of which is set in the "real" world which is in many ways scarier and more unfriendly than the fairy tale world Hazel enters into in the second part when she goes to rescue Jack. One of my favorite parts in the real world comes after Hazel, having been sent to the school counselor where "she felt like a bird that someone was preparing to stuff and put on a mantel" has a session with the counselor and her mother. As they leave, her mother is silent and stops outside the office to look at a flower arrangement. Hazel tells her the flowers are fake. Her mother rolls her eyes and says she knows, and asks if Hazel is okay. A defeated Hazel shrugs and responds, "They're going to figure out what's wrong with me." 

Something flashed over her mother's face, and she leaned down and put her hand on Hazel's shoulder. "Hazel," she said, her voice firm and grave. "Listen to me. There is nothing wrong with you. Got it?"

Hazel nods, but she believes the words to be like the plastic flowers, looking good on the surface. She's not yet ready to trust herself or the adult world she believes has let her down. That will come by the tale's end (I would have been acutely disappointed if she didn't) but the character of her mother was wholly redeemed with that exchange. Despite her own frustration and not knowing how to help her daughter cope with her trials, she found a beautiful way to love and support her child. Sometimes children's literature paints adults as emotionally absent and non-supportive without showing that they struggle as much as their children do. Extra points here!

When one of Jack's friends tells Hazel that he had seen Jack follow a woman dressed in white into the woods, she knows what she must do: she must go into the woods and rescue Jack from the Snow Queen, and in the second half of the book she does just that, "in ill-considered shoes, brave and completely unprepared."

Wolves and ravens and giant clocks; dancing slippers and a trio of women at a spinning wheel and an empty swan skin are just a few of the creatures and things Hazel finds in the woods before she makes it to where the Snow Queen is holding her friend captive. Hazel must learn to know who to trust and who not to in this strange world, and that of course includes herself. And in the end, it is her love for Jack that rescues him and brings them both back to the real world.

The book is replete with references to both classic fairy tales and more modern children's classics by C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, Madeleine L'Engle, Phillip Pullman and others, many of which I recognized and probably a few which went over my head; most of which are old friends of mine and a few which in the context given I figure I perhaps ought to revisit. In celebrating imagination and friendship, "Breadcrumbs" celebrates the joy of reading as well. And it has earned a spot in my "favorites" bookshelf.

Breadcrumbs