The Snow Spider

Starred review from September 4, 2006
Nimmo (the Charlie Bone novels) launches the Magician Trilogy with this enchanting tale, first released in England in 1986. On his ninth birthday, Gwyn's delightfully eccentric grandmother gives him five gifts: a piece of seaweed, a tin whistle, a metal brooch, a small, broken horse and the yellow scarf that his older sister had been wearing the day she mysteriously disappeared four years earlier. His grandmother instructs him to "give them to the wind" to discover if he is a magician, like his ancestors. The boy first releases the brooch, hoping that the wind will bring him something "to fill the emptiness" that descended on his home when his sister vanished. The brooch turns into a glowing white spider, who weaves intricate webs. One of the webs contains the image of a girl who strongly resembles his sister—except she is "fragile and so silver-pale that she might have been made of gossamer." When the girl in the web temporarily materializes, she brings a peace to Gwyn's family that has long been missing. Nimmo demonstrates how unique gifts can set a child apart; Gwyn's magic causes a rift between him and his best friend and brings the class bully's wrath upon him. Swiftly paced and cleverly plotted, Nimmo's novel fluidly fuses fantasy, suspense and drama. Ages 8-12.

From the opening music to the first note of narrator John Keating's beautifully accented voice, the listener is transported to the Welsh countryside. The recording opens on Gwyn's tenth birthday as his grandmother, Nain, declares, "It's time to find out if you're a magician." She leaves him with five unusual gifts, which Gwyn finds to be "improbable effects" for a magician. Nain tells Gwyn to "give the gifts to the wind." John Keating manages not only Nain's wonderful aged voice, but the sense that she is throwing her final words over her shoulder. He also imbues the word "wind" with a haunting foreshadowing of mystery and power. With narration like this, it is as if John Keating were himself the snow spider, spinning richness into Jenny Nimmo's tale. K.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine