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Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy
Author:
Foxlee, Karen
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 8-12
Language: English
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LC: PZ7.F841
Grade: 3-7
Print Run: 35000
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ISBN-13: 9780385753548
LCCN: 2013012236
Imprint: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Random House
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Pub Date: 01/28/2014
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $16.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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228 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
H 8.56",
W 5.81",
D 0.89",
0.7875 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Children's Core Collection, 22nd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 23rd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 24th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 12th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 13th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 14th ed.
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Awards:
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BCCB Starred Reviews
Booklist Starred Reviews
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Indies Choice/E.B. White Read-Aloud Book Award Winners and Honors
Kirkus Starred Reviews
Publishers Weekly Annual Best Books Selections
Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
School Library Journal Best Books
School Library Journal Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Booklist
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
School Library Journal
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TIPS Subjects:
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Fairy Tale
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Fairy Tales & Folklore / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Friendship
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LC Subjects:
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Fairy tales
Heroes, Fiction
Kings, queens, rulers, etc., Fiction
Magic, Fiction
Museums, Fiction
Prisoners, Fiction
Wizards, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Fairy tales
Museums, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
4.9
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Points: 7.0
Lexile Level:
660
Reading Counts Level:
3.8
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Points: 11.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 01/01/2014 |
| Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard, who's too obsessed with science to believe in anything else, finds magic when her dad takes a job at a museum, where a locked-away boy has been waiting for her. 240pp. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Booklist | 12/15/2013 |
| Grades 4-6. Ophelia is a grieving 11-year-old who only believes in things that science can explain. Following her beloved mother's death, her father takes a job at an enormous museum in a city where it constantly snows. There Ophelia discovers the imprisoned Marvelous Boy, who discloses to her that in three days the Snow Queen will discharge her wretchedness upon mankind. He further reveals that he must save the world before that happens and that only Ophelia can help him. As the boy tells his story, Ophelia accepts the challenges required to release him from his three-hundred-year captivity. She faces magical snow leopards, child ghosts, a Spanish conquistador, and a monstrous misery bird--none of which, like the boy, can be scientifically explained. Nevertheless, Ophelia learns there are truths she never dreamed of and that courage is less about bravery than about the decision to help people in need. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, this clever story-within-a-story reads easily yet offers deep lessons about trust, responsibility, and friendship. Fredriksen, Jeanne. 240p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 02/01/2014 |
| R. Gr. 5-7. Still reeling from the death of her mother, eleven-year-old Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard copes by restricting her beliefs to the scientifically proven. However, science fails her when, at a strange museum, she meets a mysterious, nameless boy (locked behind a door and visible only through the golden keyhole) who tells her he has been chosen by wizards to deliver a magical sword to the One Other who will defeat the Snow Queen and save the world. After helping the boy escape his prison, Ophelia embarks on an adventure including encounters on various museum floors with monstrous "misery birds" (huge eagle-headed, human-eating creatures with bat wings), ghosts of girls whom the Queen has fed into a mysterious machine that sustains her life, and malevolent mannequins and taxidermy that occasionally come to life. Foxlee inventively weaves familiar folkloric elements-an evil snow queen, a magic sword, a quest, a chosen one-into her modern setting, all the while evoking a mood of dreamlike foreboding. Ophelia and the boy are intriguing characters, reluctant in their heroism ("She had expected magic to be very clean and powerful, but instead it was messy and uncomfortable and full of decisions. It made her legs tremble") but plowing ahead anyway. Her astute observations about her family's grief add a touching and serious note; equally poignant is Ophelia's encounter with the ghosts of the girls killed by the Queen. Atmospheric, full-spread monochromatic illustrations open each of the book's three parts, adding to the story's sense of magic. The combination of fairy tale elements and a bit of age-appropriate darkness calls up Ursu's Breadcrumbs (BCCB 10/11), and this will appeal to Ursu's fans. JH. 240p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2014. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 11/01/2013 |
| Eleven-year-old Ophelia faces her fears to help a nameless boy imprisoned in a surreal museum by the evil Snow Queen in this contemporary fairy tale. An asthmatic girl who believes in science and eschews fantasy, Ophelia's curious but admittedly not very brave. Grieving her mother's recent death, Ophelia arrives in a snowy "foreign city" with her father and sister. While her curator father organizes an exhibition of swords, Ophelia wanders the vast museum until she discovers "The Marvelous Boy," trapped by the Snow Queen for three centuries in a hidden room. A spell preventing the Snow Queen from killing the boy expires in three days, when he will die and the world will freeze unless Ophelia can free him, locate his magical sword and identify the "One Other" to defeat the Snow Queen. Though she's unsure she believes the boy's fantastical story, Ophelia gradually heeds an inner voice urging her to follow her heart. Alternating between Ophelia's bizarre quest to save the boy and the retelling of his story, the intense plot moves Ophelia beyond grief to fulfill what she realizes is her destiny. Armed with her inhaler, practical Ophelia proves a formidable heroine in a frozen landscape. A well-wrought, poignant and original reworking of Andersen's "The Snow Queen." (Fantasy. 8-12). 224pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 11/11/2013 |
| Ages 8-12. In this appropriately frosty take on The Snow Queen, Foxlee (The Midnight Dress) introduces 11-year-old Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard, who's asthmatic, pragmatic, curious, and braver than she realizes. Ophelia's family, shattered after her mother's death, is visiting an unnamed snowy city so her father can curate an exhibition of swords. Exploring the strange, icy, and nearly empty museum, Ophelia discovers the long-imprisoned Marvelous Boy, who recruits her to help him save the world from the Snow Queen; she also turns up a cluster of deadly "misery birds" and a roomful of the ghosts of numerous girls. Foxlee's writing is elegant and accessible, with a pervading melancholy; this is as much a story of loss as it is an adventure. Certain elements, such as the identity of the Snow Queen, aren't really surprises, but it's in Foxlee's evocation of the museum's unsettling dangers, as well as Ophelia's eventual willingness to reconcile what she knows in her mind with what she feels in her heart, that this story shines. Author's agent: Catherine Drayton, Inkwell Management. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Jan.). 240p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| School Library Journal | 03/01/2014 |
| Gr 4-6--This inventive and engaging fantasy, based on the story of the Snow Queen, will be a welcome addition to middle grade collections. Solidly scientific-minded Ophelia, whose mother has recently died, moves with her older sister and father to a snowy and wintry city, where her father is busy working on a museum exhibition of historical swords. Wandering through the museum, Ophelia discovers a boy who has been locked in a room for years, and who needs her help. Much to her own surprise Ophelia takes greater and greater risks in order to win his freedom, and, in the process, forges a strong connection with the memory and spirit of her mother. It is Ophelia's sister who plays the role of Kay, bewitched by the gifts given to her by the evil Miss Kaminski, the head of the museum. Foxlee's characters come alive immediately. While Ophelia is contemporary in her ordinariness, her courage and determination to save the people she cares about harkens back to archetypal fairy tale heroes and heroines. Foxlee skillfully reveals the story of the boy as the plot unfolds. The setting is carefully and at times spookily drawn, as Ophelia faces terrifying dangers in deserted museum corridors. The writing sparkles and the pleasing restraint of the style is happily reflected in the short length of the book. Foxlee's fresh and imaginative take on this classic tale will be snapped up by fantasy and adventure lovers alike. Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City. 240p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Horn Book | 01/01/2014 |
| Middle School. Exploring the museum where her father is a guest curator, Ophelia discovers a small room in which, looking through a cleverly hidden keyhole, she spies the bright eye of a boy. He tells her that he's a prisoner of the Snow Queen, who, Ophelia discovers, is none other than Miss Kaminski, the museum's head curator. To defeat her, someone must find the boy's missing sword--and that someone is clearly Ophelia. Despite her conviction that "anything is possible if you have a plan," she learns that to succeed she must repress her scientific reasoning and use her heart. This is a fable of psychic healing, in which grieving Ophelia, mourning her mother only three months dead, must battle the Queen's sword (named the Great Sorrow) armed only with her powers as "defender of goodness and happiness and hope." The fable's moral and allegorical elements are thus readily apparent, but Foxlee's deftness with characterization and setting also makes this a satisfying fantasy. There's many a children's novel set in a museum, but Foxlee's is noteworthy for its creative abundance of exhibits (including sewing baskets and teaspoons, "A Millennium of Religious Hats," "Culture of the Cossacks," "History of Silhouettes," and many more). deirdre f. baker. 229pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 11/01/2014 |
| 2. Ophelia discovers a boy who's imprisoned...by the Snow Queen; to rescue him, Ophelia must find the boy's missing sword. This is a fable of psychic healing, in which Ophelia, mourning her mother, must battle the Queen armed only with her powers as "defender of goodness and happiness and hope." Foxlee's deftness with characterization and setting makes this a satisfying fantasy. dfb. 229pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014. |
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9780385753548,dl.it[0].title
| Review Citations |
| New York Times Book Review | 02/16/2014 |
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