text: I once read an article in Horn Book Magazine (a review source of titles and articles on children's literature) that lamented the millions of poor translations of Hans Christian Andersen polluting the minds of our young people today.  The review mentioned that stories like, "The Snow Queen", which were originally written in a snappy vernacular, have been dumbed down and drained of all energy by their American translators.  With this idea fresh in my mind I found myself in possession of a very particular copy of "The Snow Queen" and I was able to test this theory myself.  Now due to the wacky nature of Amazon.com, the website has lumped together the reviews of every single version of this Anderson story.  You will see that some of the reviews refer to Nilesh Mistry's, some refer to the audio book, some to Eileen Kernaghan's, and some (God help us all) to Mary Engelbreit.  None of these, however, are the version that I am reviewing.  After careful consideration, I selected the edition retold by Amy Ehrlich and illustrated by Susan Jeffers.  The Ehrlich/Jeffers team has banded together to bring us every fairy tale from Thumbelina to Cinderella.  With this 1982 classic edition, they bring all the creepy and crawly elements of Andersen's riveting tale to a kind of tame middlebrow life.
  	
  Most people don't remember that "The Snow Queen" begins when the devil creates a mirror that reflects everything good as bad.  By a quirk of fate the mirror is smashed one day (the details of this accident are left unclear) and the tiny pieces go spinning into the atmosphere.  If these splinters enter your eye, everything will look ugly to you.  If they enter your heart, it will turn instantly to ice.  Got it?  Good.  Cause sure enough, two small pieces enter the eye and the heart of a boy named Kai.  When this happens he stops playing with his best playmate Gerta and instead falls under the seductive spell of the mysterious and magnificently pale Snow Queen.  Gerta goes in search of her friend but is waylaid by a variety of different adventures.  She escapes an overly loving old witch, is taken in by a prince and princess, falls into the power of a thief girl and her kin, and at last saves Kai from the Snow Queen herself.  By the end of the book, neither kid is a child any longer and their home is just as they left it.
  	
  Obviously "The Snow Queen" is one big ole story about growing up.  The idea of the devil's mirror causing someone to despise anything they see and grow a suddenly cold heart... well that's just another way of describing adolescence, is it not?  Andersen obviously borrowed quite a lot from that classic old tale, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", in which another girl goes off to save the man she loves from the machinations of a wicked woman.  Heck, "Tam Lin" was probably an influence as well.  The best version of this particular story I ever read was by Kara Dalkey.  It was a tale named, "The Lady of the Ice Garden" and can be found in "Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy".  It is not, however, appropriate for children.  Kids today will probably look at "The Snow Queen" and instantly think of the White Witch from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".  I cannot think, however, that this is a bad thing.  
  	
  As for the Jeffers/Ehrlich version, it's all right.  As an illustrator, Jeffers has apparently decided to make Kai and Gerta definitely children.  I guess that lowers the creepiness factor when the Snow Queen lures the boy to her sleigh and wraps him in her furs.  Jeffers really captures beautifully every diamond in the Snow Queen's dress and every strand of her white white hair.  There is the odd stylistic choice here and there, though.  When Gerta surprises the prince and princess in their bed, it is not your typical mattress affair but rather large his and her flower petals.  I can't think that they're comfortable (or even particularly practical).  The illustrations have been created, according to the book, "using a fine-line pen with ink and dyes.  They were applied over a detailed pencil drawing that was then erased".  As a result, the book is as soft as a colored pencil, but with a level of detail and intricacy normally associated with pen and ink.
  	
  Obviously I don't know enough about the original version of "The Snow Queen" (or, as Andersen called it, "Sneedronningen") to know whether or not this book is a worthy version to read to your tots.  At any rate, it tells the full story, warts and all, and will provide them with what may well be the most Freudian-toned fairy tale ever to grace their little brains.  A fun edition of a rather odd tale
  