Literature & Fiction 

Gerda and Kay are the best of friends. They live across an alley from each other and happily chat, play, and tend their lovely rose garden. The children are happy until tragedy strikes Kay. His eye and heart are pierced with fragments of a mirror, and the loving boy Gerda knew vanishes. The Snow Queen has put him under her spell and taken him to her palace of snow and ice. It is up to Gerda to find him and bring him home to the love that awaits him.

In this timeless storybook, Ken Setterington has captured the haunting beauty of the classic tale of love’s ability to conquer the coldest, most damaged heart. The book is illustrated with the delicate traditional cut paper art of scherenschnitt, which Hans Christian Andersen himself practiced.

Gr 2-4-In seven short chapters, Setterington retells the story of the Snow Queen's abduction of little Kay and his rescue by his loyal friend Gerda. Alternating with full pages of text are pictures done in the traditional art of scherenschnitte, a technique of paper cutting that uses sharp scissors with tiny blades. An author's note provides a bit of history about the art form, which was practiced by Andersen himself. The Hofers have created wonderfully intricate illustrations, which appear the way silhouettes would on the white pages. Though the medium is different, the detail and symmetry of the artwork are reminiscent of Virginia Lee Burton's style. Setterington's language is rich but not easy for children to read, making this more suitable for sharing out loud.-Sally Bates Goodroe, formerly at Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX 

Hans Christian Andersen (/ˈhɑːnz ˈkrɪstʃən ˈændərsən/; Danish: [hanˀs kʰʁæsd̥jan ˈɑnɐsn̩] ( listen); often referred to in Scandinavia as H. C. Andersen; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories, called eventyr in Danish or "fairy-tales" in English, express themes that transcend age and nationality.

Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling", and many more.