posted on 03 Jan 2016

Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen reinterpreted and illustrated by Yevgeniya Yeretskaya

I love elaborate pop-up books and so was delighted to receive this adaptation of the classic story by the award winning illustrator and paper engineer, Yevgeniya Yeretskaya, as a Christmas present. Yeretskaya uses an interesting mix of traditional and digital techniques in her work and has published several other books for children, including the more recent best selling 'Snowflakes' ( 2015). 

The cover picture, coloured in dark blue, white and silver depicts a rather pouty, stylised, icy young woman with big doe eyes who reminded me at first of an illustration from a 70s Jackie magazine. In fact this is not indicative of the style that follows in the first of seven stories that begins on the next page with the dramatic breaking of the mirror created by malevolent looking goblins which fragments into millions of pieces spreading evil throughout the world.

The second story uses warm softly coloured illustrations showing the friendship between the little girl and boy, Kai and Gerda. These have a more vintage, mid European atmosphere which makes them feel very familiar and comfortable. There is a lift up additional section to the story in the bottom left hand corner revealing the sparkling queen of the cover appearing outside the window.

The next page is stupendous with the three dimensional image of Kai being taken away in the Snow Queen's sleigh sweeping across diagonally pulled by horses and surrounded by birds - all in white and silver against a dark blue background. The text is actually rather small and a bit lost here, which is a shame.

The third story repeats the soft colour palette with the distraught Gerda left behind without her friend. Another lift up section adds to the warmth of the scene as she begins her journey to find him with gloriously red roses in the magical garden brought to life by her tears.

The fourth story is introduced by another full double page very  dramatic illustration with Gerda meeting a little boy who she thought might be Kai but who turns out to be a prince. She has been misled by a magical speaking crow included in the foreground of the picture. I particularly like the background here with repeated black silhouetted figures of mysterious figures riding on horseback through smoke. The written text pulls out on the right hand side of the second page.

The fifth and sixth story take up the next two pages with the text being foregrounded, the illustrations hiding behind and requiring the reader to lift two flaps to discover. 

On the final pages we have the eventual reunion of Gerda and Kai against the backdrop of the imposing ice palace that soars behind them. The story concludes with another pull down section that shows us the now grown up children living happily ever after.

Overall I think that there is rather too much dense written text in this otherwise beautifully crafted book because the detailed illustrations are powerful enough in themselves to tell the story. It makes reading the book a very complicated business and I'm not sure whether children would bother to stick with reading all the text. It is nevertheless an impressive and unusual addition  to my pop-up book collection by a very talented illustrator and paper engineer.

 

Karen Argent

3rd January 2016