"A lush and addictive fantasy woven from threads of magic, romance, and adventure by a master storyteller. Danielle Paige raises the bar with Stealing Snow." —Kami Garcia, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling coauthor of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and author of THE LOVELY RECKLESS
"A magical, exciting adventure full of secrets, thieves, and witches, with a unique, fresh twist on an old legend." —Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of WAIT FOR YOU
"Just as a blizzard turns a familiar landscape into something both dazzling and deadly, Stealing Snow transforms the 'Snow Queen' into an adventure that's hauntingly beautiful and dangerously seductive." —Kass Morgan, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of THE 100
"Eerie, edgy, and enchanting, Stealing Snow will transport you." —Amie Kaufman, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling coauthor of ILLUMINAE
"One of my favorite fairy tale retellings! Danielle Paige is a master storyteller!" —Melissa de la Cruz, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of THE ISLE OF THE LOST
"Suggest to readers looking for a modern story with dark, fairy-tale underpinnings." —School Library Journal
"Fans of Paige's Oz series hoping for a similar experience will not be disappointed." —Kirkus Reviews
"Captivating fantasy . . . Watching Snow be plunged into a world of new people and experiences after being closed off and numbed for so long is compelling. Perfect for readers who want their fairy tales to have a darker twist." - Booklist
"Within the classroom, students can look at this story as a comparison between the original tale of the Snow Queen and this one, examining how an author may build a character’s untold background" - VOYA
"Debut author Paige doesn't hold back in this fast-paced action novel. Give this cinematic upper-YA novel to fans of A. G. Howard's Splintered, Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars, and TV shows such as Once Upon a Time and Grimm." —School Library Journal on DOROTHY MUST DIE
"A classic made more sinister." —Booklist on DOROTHY MUST DIE
"Readers of Baum's books will take special delight in seeing new twists on the old characters, and they will greet the surprise climactic turnabout with the smugness of insiders." —Kirkus Reviews on DOROTHY MUST DIE
"Gone are the days of rainbows, Lollipop Guilds and pretty much anything to sing about in a major key. For those willing to go on a quest with a heroine more attuned to our times than the Dust Bowl era, there's no place like it." —USA Today on DOROTHY MUST DIE
"Paige delivers a solid, intense, and strange narrative that draws deeply on its source material." —Publishers Weekly on DOROTHY MUST DIE
06/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Snow and Bale are long-term in-patients in the most secure wing of rural New York's Whittaker Psychiatric Institute. Snow Yardley has had a full-time minder since she pushed a girl into a mirror 11 years ago. Bale is locked up for setting fires. The two 17-year-olds had been best friends, until their forbidden kiss pushed Bale into a violent state and then into near catatonia. When Bale's body is stolen away through an asylum mirror, Snow is distraught. Not long after, encouraged by dreams, she willingly follows a stranger through another mirror, to rescue Bale. In the land of Algid, she meets Kai and Gerde (nods to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen"), along with handsome Jagger and a band of Robber girls. In Algid, Snow's icy anger manifests itself in deadly icicles, ice arrows, and targeted snowstorms. Jagger refers to Snow as "Princess" and enlists her help in stealing back shards of a broken mirror that will save Algid from the tyrannical rule of King Lazar—Snow's father. If she completes this task, she will be reunited with Bale. Fairy-tale elements abound—witches, magical animals, fantastic powers, and separated twins raised apart. The action comes to an icy peak when Jagger, Snow, and the Robber girls dress up and crash the Duchess's Ball. VERDICT Suggest to readers looking for a modern story with dark, fairy-tale underpinnings.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX
2016-06-01
In this series opener, a magical kingdom is cursed with perpetual winter, and its only hope for redemption is…a teenage mental patient.Locked in Whittaker Psychiatric Institute since the age of 5, Snow Yardley's lonely life is bearable only because of her friend and fellow inmate Bale, with whom she shares her first kiss. When Bale mysteriously vanishes from the asylum, Snow's quest to save him leads her into Algid, a fairyland besieged by the father she never knew, the power-hungry King Lazar. According to an oracle's prophecy, Snow's return will either break her father's wintry curse or provide him with enough power to subdue Algid forevermore. Leaving her dystopian Oz for this contemporary retelling of "The Snow Queen," Paige (Yellow Brick War, 2016, etc.) gifts readers with a blonde, white heroine intent on saving herself and whose rebelliousness and hotheadedness feel all too real. The early chapters set in Whittaker are beautifully textured, but the transition into the magical realm is muddled, setting a tone for the worldbuilding that feels rushed. While the Snow-Bale romantic relationship is genuinely rendered, budding tension between Snow and Kai, an Algid engineer she encounters, seems perfunctory. The most intriguing aspect of Algid is that magic is controlled by emotion, enabling the author to address the fact that wielding power has real consequences. Fans of Paige's Oz series hoping for a similar experience will not be disappointed. (Fantasy. 14 & up)
