Now, the world is more than it seems to be. You know this, of course, because you read stories. You understand that there is the surface and then there are all the things that glimmer and shift underneath it. And you know that not everyone believes in those things, that there are people -- a great many people -- who believe the world cannot be any more than what they can see with their eyes. (Breadcrumbs, Chapter 5: The Mirror)
Let's just start by saying that Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, came highly anticipated. Ever since Betsy Bird, she of Fuse#8 fame, wrote in her blog :
To my mind, Ursu does for Hans Christian Andersen in this book what Adam Gidwitz did for The Brothers Grimm in his A Tale Dark and Grimm,
Beatrix Cottonpants has felt compelled to flag down any messenger pigeons, magic mail owls, or pony expresses that strayed off the path and passed by her house, just to see if they had the book. Luckily for them (and her. And you!), Breadcrumbs does not disappoint.
Hazel and Jack are best friends, always and forever. Sure, it can be hard for a boy and a girl to remain best friends as they grow up, especially when there are competing forces threatening their attention, they still find time to go sledding or to talk about books and stories or draw pictures together. At least it seems that way until an accident at school seems to transform Jack, rendering him cold and completely uninterested in Hazel. Her suspicions that something is actually, truly. and maybe magically wrong indeed are confirmed when Jack goes missing with a highly ridiculous alibi, and Hazel sets off into the woods to bring him home. In the woods, she finds a world unlike any she's ever known outside of the books she loves, a world that might have existed in the mind of Hans Christian Andersen, and must find her way through the forest to find the Snow Queen and her prisoner, Jack.
There is something very magical about Breadcrumbs, and that perhaps has to do with the way Ursu handles the presence of magic in Hazel's world. Part One of the book, which takes place in the real world, reads like middle grade contemporary realistic fiction: Hazel wrestles with the fact that Jack might be growing away from her, and finds it almost a relief to learn that he might have been taken away by a white Queen in a sleigh drawn by huge dogs, or something like it. While Hazel struggles with worries about her friendship with Jack, and her place in the world (as a girl with a boy for a best friend, a child adopted into a family of a different ethnicity than her own, and a fan of fantasy literature, she has a hard time finding other people with whom she feels comfortable), Ursu breaks away to tell the rest of the fairy tale: the goblin's mirror breaks and turns everything it touches ugly and twisted, a witch in white claims the boy with the shard of mirror in his eye. The magic is very matter of fact, and yet at the heart of the novel is the conflict of reconciling magic with real life, especially the real life of someone who is growing up, and who worries that magic is for babies and that she will have to leave it behind.
At ten years old, Hazel is easily relate-able for kids reading this book, who may be struggling with growing up too fast or what they believe is too slow, who can't find a way to keep the magic in their lives. How perfect to turn to fairy tales to address this question, especially the tales of Andersen, who used them to work through any number of issues that continue into adulthood. Anyone Hazel's age should read this book, and anyone older than Hazel, especially those who believe magic is for children, should especially read this book.
Check out Anne Ursu's website for more information about Breadcrumbs, The Cronus Chronicles, or her books for adults.
Review of Breadcrumbs on Fuse#8
Fairy Tale Feature: A Tale Dark and Grimm
Learn more about Hans Christian Andersen and his stories at The Hans Christian Andersen Center
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