The Snow Child

We may not know it but when we start reading a book we are either drawn in to it or forced away from it for different reasons and those reasons are called, in library lingo, Appeal Factors. These factors can be as varied as: Characterization, Plot/Storyline, Setting, Language, Genre, Time Frame, and Pacing.


Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child, drew me into her superb tale using two appeals, Language and Setting, rolled into one. Her novel is a mystical tale of a young child who is created out of a "snow-child" by a childless couple who are learning how to deal with the rigors of homesteading in 1920 in the Alaskan wilderness.


From the beginning of her tale her use of language and her choice of setting "ensnared" me so that it was very difficult for me to put the book down in between readings. I felt the cold of the winter nights as if I was the one who had slept in the cabin where the cracks encouraged the cold to sneak in and endured the intensity of the summer sun that caused Mabel to be drenched with sweat as she worked in their vegetable field for the first time.


This tale is Ivey's debut novel and I for one anticipate the appearance of her next creation and wonder what mysteries and locales she will offer us next.