The Ice Garden

December 1, 2018

Gr 3-6-More than anything, 12-year-old Jess just wants to be like other kids. But Jess is allergic to the sun, a condition that forces her to spend most of her time inside, behind closed shades, or encased in a heavy protective suit complete with hood and goggles. When she's not traveling back and forth for doctor visits with her mom, Jess learns at home and spends her free time making up fantastic tales that she hopes will one day make her famous. One night, fed up with her circumstances, Jess sneaks out to the neighborhood playground she has always wished to visit. Startled by a strange sound, she flees to the woods behind the playground and stumbles into a magical place: a garden made completely of ice. Entranced, she begins to make nightly visits to the playground and soon discovers that she is not alone: Owen, also made of ice, becomes a trusted friend, one of the first Jess has made in a long time. This gentle tale strikes a pleasing balance between the harsh realities of illness and a fantastical world in which to escape. Young readers will relate to Jess and her frustration at the lack of control she has over her life. This effectively straddles the line between realistic fiction and magical realism. VERDICT This feel-good, modern fairy tale is ideal for elementary libraries and all middle grade collections.-Kristy Pasquariello, Westwood Public Library, MA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2018
A girl whose skin can't tolerate sunlight finds a magical ice world.Twelve-year-old Jess' skin burns from exposure to sunlight. Transfers between her house (blinds drawn) and Mum's car (tinted windows) require goggles, gloves, and "Full Hat": "a long white hood that masked the whole of Jess's face and neck." Tired of her cramped, constricted life full of hospital visits and empty of friends (the complete friendlessness feels narratively contrived), Jess sneaks out at night--and steps from her muggy town into a frigid magical landscape. Everything's made of ice, including Owen, a boy her age. Jess returns night after night to run free under the sunless, "mottled twilit heaven." For a while, it seems safe. Owen shares key traits with Davey, an unconscious, hospitalized boy to whom Jess reads her stories when she's at the hospital. The Owen-Davey connection is gently mystical throughout. Less gentle is a knot the text ties around Jess, involving brutal self-sacrifice and a magical cure for her unnamed condition. She gets agency, sort of, but the narrative sets her up: She faces a devastating final choice that isn't free at all and that's built on troubling gender and disability frameworks. Jess, Owen, and Davey are white; Middle Easterners and Indigenous people are used in Jess' stories as supposedly exotic flavor, while Africa is mentioned as a place with animals.Disability as vehicle, with bonus self-deprivation. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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January 1, 2019
Grades 3-6 A girl who can't be in the sun discovers an ice garden in this fanciful novel. Jess has to cover every inch of her body from the sun; otherwise, her skin burns and she must go to the hospital, where she already spends too much time. When she discovers a mysterious ice garden where the light doesn't hurt her and she befriends a kind boy made of ice, it seems too good to be true. And when the boy gives Jess a piece of the garden, the sun no longer burns her. But the garden suffers as a result, and Jess has to make a choice. Jess is an engaging character?lonely, imaginative, and witty. Her relationship with her mother, who struggles to protect Jess without making her feel powerless, is poignant. Deciding between being cured of her disorder and saving her friend's world is a heavy, even cruel weight for Jess to bear. But she ends the story a happier version of herself?still imaginative and witty, but a little less lonely. A story about difficult choices.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)