The Snow Child is a magical tale about love, loss, and family. The novel’s story of an older, childless couple surviving the Alaskan wilderness and befriending an ethereal mountain girl is imaginative and evokes the essence of a fairytale.

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I read The Snow Child for the 2024 Thoughtful Reading Challenge. December’s challenge was to read a book with snow on the cover because it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The Snow Child not only has snow on its book cover, but its main premise is centered on snow. Snow is so prevalent in the story that sometimes I thought it was cold and snowy where I live. That’s a sign of good writing!

I’ll start this review with a summary of The Snow Child.

Mabel and Jack are a middle-aged couple who leave the comforts of the Northeastern United States to establish a farmstead in Alaska. 1920’s Alaska is rugged, especially for those not used to life in the wilderness, but the couple needed to put distance between themselves and the place where they tragically lost a baby.

Mabel’s first days in Alaska are spent in a state of depression. In fact, she almost kills herself in the opening scene. But in a rare moment of fun, she and Jack build a little snow child during the first snowfall of the season. The next morning, they find that their creation has been wrecked and the scarf and mittens they had put on it are gone.

The couple begins to catch glimpses of a little girl wearing the scarf and mittens. She’s usually flitting through the trees, and she barely leaves tracks in the snow. She’s skittish and a little feral, but eventually warms up to Mabel and Jack, frequently visiting and sharing meals, but never staying for long.

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Mabel recalls a fairytale she heard as a child about a girl made of snow that came to life, and she thinks this is what happened with their snow girl. Jack reluctantly begins to believe it may be true. The girl, Faina, is uncomfortable in their warm cabin, disappears during warmer months, and even appears to create snowflakes from her fingertips. Regardless of her origins, Faina becomes like a daughter to the couple and fills the painful void left by their dead newborn.

The years go by, Faina grows up, Mabel and Jack grow old. Their attempts to tame Faina have failed, but they’ve come to terms with the fact Faina is a child of the mountains who thrives when she’s outdoors.

And then Faina meets a boy… And that’s the end of my The Snow Child summary because I don’t want to reveal the ending. I’ll just say it’s bittersweet.

I really enjoyed The Snow Child and it’s a good example of how the structure of a book reading challenge can introduce you to new books and help pull you out of a reading rut.

The characters in the novel are well-written. I could feel Mabel’s sorrow and joy, Jack’s pain and happiness, and Faina’s vulnerability and palpable need for the wilderness. The relationships among the characters, as well as a neighboring farm family, are also done well. They are strong and built on love, but not flawless. I feel like they realistically represent healthy, real-life relationships.

The backdrop of the Alaska wilderness is beautiful and frightening and believable as a setting for a story with a magical component. I was reminded about how brave the settlers of such a demanding place were. Imagine starting a farm in a place where the growing season is so short and then only surviving the winter because you happened to kill a large moose. (I wonder what moose tastes like. Probably not chicken.)

And the story line is engaging and well-paced. I looked forward to listening to The Snow Child every day and never grew bored with it.

I think The Snow Child should appeal to a broad audience and I would say it’s appropriate for young teens and older.

Did you take December’s challenge? Tell us about your book in the comments section.

**Reminder – January kicks off the 2025 Thoughtful Reading Challenge with a book published the year of your first birthday.

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Happy new year, everyone!