Snow Child discussion questions, interviews, readings, reviews
AGENDA:
HMWK: For Monday, read Ch. 9-13 (finish Part One)
Study guide from Writers and Books
THINK, PAIR, SHARE: With a partner, answer five questions from the study guide and post on the blog
Continue working on your fairy tale/folk tale adaptation
Snegurochka (The Russian folk tale)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snegurochka
2. The Snow Maiden
http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/snow_maiden.html
http://vd-crystaldream.blogspot.com/2013/05/legend-of-snow-maiden-russian-fairy.html
Magical Realism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism
Eowyn Ivey at Rochester Public Library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlgm_Ob6DDI
1. When Mabel first arrives in Alaska, it seems a bleak and lonely place to her. Does her sense of the land change over time? If so, how?
2. Why are Jack and Mabel emotionally estranged from each other in the beginning of the novel, and how are they able to overcome that?
3. How do Esther Benson and Mabel differ in temperament, and how does their friendship change Mabel?
4. The first time Garrett sees Faina in person is when he spies her killing a wild swan. What is the significance of this scene?
5. In what ways does Faina represent the Alaska wilderness?
6. Jack and Mabel?s only child is stillborn. How does this affect Mabel?s relationship with Faina?
7. When Jack is injured, Esther and Garret move to their farm to help them. How does this alter Jack and Mabel?s relationship?
8. Much of Jack and Mabel?s sorrow comes from not having a family of their own, and yet they leave their extended family behind to move to Alaska. By the end of the novel, has their sense of family changed? Who would they consider a part of their family?
9. Death comes in many forms in The Snow Child, including Mabel giving birth to a stillborn infant, Jack shooting a moose, Faina slaying a swan, the fox killing a wild bird, Jack and Mabel slaughtering their chickens, and Garrett shooting the fox. Why is this one of the themes of the book and what is the author trying to say about death?
10. What do you believe happened to Faina in the end? Who was she?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
HMWK: For Monday, read Ch. 9-13 (finish Part One)
Study guide from Writers and Books
THINK, PAIR, SHARE: With a partner, answer five questions from the study guide and post on the blog
Continue working on your fairy tale/folk tale adaptation
Snegurochka (The Russian folk tale)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snegurochka
2. The Snow Maiden
http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/snow_maiden.html
http://vd-crystaldream.blogspot.com/2013/05/legend-of-snow-maiden-russian-fairy.html
Magical Realism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism
Eowyn Ivey at Rochester Public Library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlgm_Ob6DDI
Book Reviews
The best thing about The Snow Child—what sets it apart from genre fiction and keeps you reading—is the way Ivey declines to lay her cards on the table. Are we dealing with fantasy or reality here?... She is a careful, matter-of-fact writer, who, thankfully, doesn't resort to unnecessary poetics or artificial ratcheting-up of tension. This leaves your imagination free to hare off down as many trails as you like.
Carrie O'Grady - Guardian (UK)
Here's a modern retelling of the Russian fairy tale about a girl, made from snow by a childless couple, who comes to life. Or perhaps not modern—the setting is 1920s Alaska—but that only proves the timelessness of the tale and of this lovely book. Unable to start a family, middle-aged Jack and Mabel have come to the wilderness to start over, leaving behind an easier life back east. Anxious that they won't outlast one wretched winter, they distract themselves by building a snow girl and wrap her in a scarf. The snow girl and the scarf are gone the next morning, but Jack spies a real child in the woods. Soon Jack and Mabel have developed a tentative relationship with the free-spirited Faina, as she finally admits to being called. Is she indeed a "snow fairy," a "wilderness pixie" magicked out of the cold? Or a wild child who knows better than anyone how to survive in the rugged north? Even as Faina embodies a natural order that cannot be tamed, the neighborly George and Esther show Jack and Mabel (and the rest of us) how important community is for survival. Verdict: A fluid, absorbing, beautifully executed debut novel; highly recommended. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal
A couple struggling to settle in the Alaskan wilderness is heartened by the arrival of the child of their dreams—or are they literally dreaming her? Jack and Mabel, the protagonists of Ivey's assured debut, are a couple in their early 50s who take advantage of cheap land to build a homestead in Alaska in the 1920s. But the work is backbreaking, the winters are brutally cold and their isolation only reminds them of their childlessness. There's a glimmer of sunshine, however, in the presence of a mysterious girl who lurks near their cabin. Though she's initially skittish, in time she becomes a fixture in the couple's lives. Ivey takes her time in clarifying whether or not the girl, Faina, is real or not, and there are good reasons to believe she's a figment of Jack and Mabel's imaginations: She's a conveniently helpful good-luck charm for them in their search for food, none of their neighbors seem to have seen the girl and she can't help but remind Mabel of fairy tales she heard in her youth about a snow child. The mystery of Faina's provenance, along with the way she brightens the couple's lives, gives the novel's early chapters a slightly magical-realist cast. Yet as Faina's identity grows clearer, the narrative also becomes a more earthbound portrait of the Alaskan wilderness and a study of the hard work involved in building a family. Ivey's style is spare and straightforward, in keeping with the novel's setting, and she offers enough granular detail about hunting and farming to avoid familiar pieties about the Last Frontier. The book's tone throughout has a lovely push and pull—Alaska's punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina's charmed appearances—and the ending is both surprising and earned. A fine first novel that enlivens familiar themes of parenthood and battles against nature.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion QuestionsThe best thing about The Snow Child—what sets it apart from genre fiction and keeps you reading—is the way Ivey declines to lay her cards on the table. Are we dealing with fantasy or reality here?... She is a careful, matter-of-fact writer, who, thankfully, doesn't resort to unnecessary poetics or artificial ratcheting-up of tension. This leaves your imagination free to hare off down as many trails as you like.
Carrie O'Grady - Guardian (UK)
Here's a modern retelling of the Russian fairy tale about a girl, made from snow by a childless couple, who comes to life. Or perhaps not modern—the setting is 1920s Alaska—but that only proves the timelessness of the tale and of this lovely book. Unable to start a family, middle-aged Jack and Mabel have come to the wilderness to start over, leaving behind an easier life back east. Anxious that they won't outlast one wretched winter, they distract themselves by building a snow girl and wrap her in a scarf. The snow girl and the scarf are gone the next morning, but Jack spies a real child in the woods. Soon Jack and Mabel have developed a tentative relationship with the free-spirited Faina, as she finally admits to being called. Is she indeed a "snow fairy," a "wilderness pixie" magicked out of the cold? Or a wild child who knows better than anyone how to survive in the rugged north? Even as Faina embodies a natural order that cannot be tamed, the neighborly George and Esther show Jack and Mabel (and the rest of us) how important community is for survival. Verdict: A fluid, absorbing, beautifully executed debut novel; highly recommended. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal
A couple struggling to settle in the Alaskan wilderness is heartened by the arrival of the child of their dreams—or are they literally dreaming her? Jack and Mabel, the protagonists of Ivey's assured debut, are a couple in their early 50s who take advantage of cheap land to build a homestead in Alaska in the 1920s. But the work is backbreaking, the winters are brutally cold and their isolation only reminds them of their childlessness. There's a glimmer of sunshine, however, in the presence of a mysterious girl who lurks near their cabin. Though she's initially skittish, in time she becomes a fixture in the couple's lives. Ivey takes her time in clarifying whether or not the girl, Faina, is real or not, and there are good reasons to believe she's a figment of Jack and Mabel's imaginations: She's a conveniently helpful good-luck charm for them in their search for food, none of their neighbors seem to have seen the girl and she can't help but remind Mabel of fairy tales she heard in her youth about a snow child. The mystery of Faina's provenance, along with the way she brightens the couple's lives, gives the novel's early chapters a slightly magical-realist cast. Yet as Faina's identity grows clearer, the narrative also becomes a more earthbound portrait of the Alaskan wilderness and a study of the hard work involved in building a family. Ivey's style is spare and straightforward, in keeping with the novel's setting, and she offers enough granular detail about hunting and farming to avoid familiar pieties about the Last Frontier. The book's tone throughout has a lovely push and pull—Alaska's punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina's charmed appearances—and the ending is both surprising and earned. A fine first novel that enlivens familiar themes of parenthood and battles against nature.
Kirkus Reviews
1. When Mabel first arrives in Alaska, it seems a bleak and lonely place to her. Does her sense of the land change over time? If so, how?
2. Why are Jack and Mabel emotionally estranged from each other in the beginning of the novel, and how are they able to overcome that?
3. How do Esther Benson and Mabel differ in temperament, and how does their friendship change Mabel?
4. The first time Garrett sees Faina in person is when he spies her killing a wild swan. What is the significance of this scene?
5. In what ways does Faina represent the Alaska wilderness?
6. Jack and Mabel?s only child is stillborn. How does this affect Mabel?s relationship with Faina?
7. When Jack is injured, Esther and Garret move to their farm to help them. How does this alter Jack and Mabel?s relationship?
8. Much of Jack and Mabel?s sorrow comes from not having a family of their own, and yet they leave their extended family behind to move to Alaska. By the end of the novel, has their sense of family changed? Who would they consider a part of their family?
9. Death comes in many forms in The Snow Child, including Mabel giving birth to a stillborn infant, Jack shooting a moose, Faina slaying a swan, the fox killing a wild bird, Jack and Mabel slaughtering their chickens, and Garrett shooting the fox. Why is this one of the themes of the book and what is the author trying to say about death?
10. What do you believe happened to Faina in the end? Who was she?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
3. Eowyn describes the cold and snowy landscape of Alaska by using various metaphors to paint a picture of the landscape.
ReplyDelete9. It makes her seem more mystical and ethereal. Sort of like she's not exactly human, I suppose.
11. I actually love how the author describes the environment and nature. I don't know why, but it just seems so descriptive.
12. Mabel. That enough is obvious. Many chapter focus on her, and she even opens up the book.
6. We don't entirely know whether or not Faina is real, so that could be considered magical.
3. The way that the setting is described, and the describing of feelings.
ReplyDelete6. It can be magical because we dont know if the snow child is actually real.
9. That she is morre closed in, and keeps to herself.
12. The main character/ protagonist is Mabel, considering that she opened up the book.
13. They are drifting apart, which could be caused that they are childless, and Mabel try's to commit suicide.
12.Mabel is the main character/protagonist. She’s the protagonist, because well the books starts off with her, and the fact that she wanted to kill herself, kind of hints that she’s trying to fight something, like person vs. self
ReplyDelete23.Faina is like the wilderness herself because she’s quick and fast, and it seems she just float over the snow, but the most aspect was her appearance, her pale white skin resembles the snow and her crystal blue eyes match like the cold. But the thing that stuck out the most was how Faina always had snow on her eyelashes.
1.The title sets the tone for the book, because you get a sense that the book is going to be about a child. But you don’t figure out that she came from the little snow child, that Jack and Mabel built.
19. Jack and Mabel’s relationship definitely blossoms over the course of the text. In the beginning, Mabel was depressed as hell and wanted to kill herself because she was lonely her and Jack barely talked to each other. But after Faina showed up, both Jack and Mabel began to talk again, and they both became happier. They’ve grown to start to love each other again.
15.It is important that Mabel is an outsider in Alsaka, because she’s miserable. Until Faina shows up. And this is important because it shows that Mabel didn’t really care about anything. It was like they moved up there to get away from everything, and kind of waste themselves away. Well that’s what I interpreted at least.
Delimar Fadumo
ReplyDeleteWho is the main character/protagonist in the novel?
Mabel is the main character.
Mabel and Esther are quite different personalities.What brings them together? How is mabel changed by their friendship?
They're the only girls in their area and there isn't that many people to talk to.Mabel became more open with herself when meeting this girl.
In what ways can this story be considered magical?
Because one day they make a snow girl and then the next day it was gone and they found a little girl
How does the lack of quotation marks when faina speaks affect how readers experience her character?
It makes it seem like she isn't real as if she weren't really speaking,she isn't real after all.
How do the elements of magical realism function in the novel?
In the novel she kind of mixes the extraordinary with the ordinary.The ordinary event, not being able to have a baby so they're kind of depressed,the extraordinary,their ''Snow child'' is born,isn't actually real,magical.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJames Talada/Justice Salamone
ReplyDelete12) The main character/protagonist in the novel is Mabel, as the story seems to focus mainly on her.
2) The author uses metaphors and imagery to describe the general situations within the book. She heavily described the cracking ice and the cold climate.
6) The little girl may or may not be real, as she “appeared” at the same time the “snow child” “disappeared”. That is a “magical” element within the story.
1) The title of the book hints at the story being happy (i.e, a child playing in snow is joyful). However, the book is not happy. The couple loses their kid, and Mabel attempts to kill herself. So, the title relates to the book through the literal “snow child” that vanishes at the same time Mabel appears.
9) It makes it seem as if Faina may or may not be real. The lack of quotation marks hints that Faina is not saying anything out loud, as she does not exist, therefore cannot make sound.
Mariangelis Gonzalez
ReplyDelete1. Ivey's writing is visual because she uses lots of imagery in her language. She uses words to describe her actions and the things that she sees/ surround her. Throughout her book, she uses imagery and metaphor comparing things to gives us more of an idea of what she is talking about. Her writing style allows you to get into the setting and understand the actions and dialogue being taken. " Mabel was too long on the window. The raven had since flown away above the treetops. The sun had slipped behind a mountain, and the light had fallen flat. The branches were bare, the grass yellowed gray. Not a single snowflake. It was as if everything fine and glittering had been ground from the world and swept away dust" (Ivey 4). This shows how she describes the things around her senses.
2. I think that Ivey's motivation to write this story was her own family. Ivey lives in Alaska with her husband and two daughters. In the story, Mabel (protagonist) wants a daugther and that's why she makes a snowman that is a girl. Ivey loves her daugthers. I actually think that if Ivey was inspired by her family to write this book, her family is part of the Benson's family because they have two boys and the parents, and she has two girls and them.
3.The main character is this novel is Mabel. Mabel is the main character because she is the one that opens up the story talking about her life. Most of the story includes her life with backstory. When Ivey added backstory for Mabel, that meant that she wanted for us to care about Mabel because she was going to be the main character.
4. This story can be considered magical because a child appears after the snow falls, Jack and Mabel make a snowgirl, and they go to sleep. Jack wakes up in the middle of the night and he sees a little girl. When he goes to check the little girl, he sees little girl footsteps that end up also with fox footprints. Then Mabel claims that she sees the little girl, but she questions, why doesn't the little girl come near the door if she's lost? Her husband goes moose hunting and then he sees the little girl again. There is no moose out in the forest. This time he chases her, but she is the reason for him catching the big moose that was when he looked back, was the little girl. Then she wasn't seen again. (We are only up to chapter 8).
5. I admire that Jack is trying his hardest to get a job and trying to maintain his family for the winter. The only thing that I dislike about Jack is that he talks less to his wife and he acts like if he doesn't hear things. I admire George for not being selfish and informing Jack to get a moose because that will help him out for the winter. I also like how he makes friendship with Jack and his wife because he knows that they might feel lonely sometimes and they themselves too, and that companionship between their families can make them happy. I also like how he helps out Jack a lot. Esther is also a cool character. I thought that it was funny and sweet when Mabel explained to Jack that Esther asked why couldn't they have children. Mabel explained to her, so Esther told Mabel to have her boys. Mabel and Jack laughed afterward. Mabel seems like a lonely character that tries her best to please Jack. I like how she tries to talk to Jack even though sometimes he is quiet. I admire her for being strong about losing a child. The snow girl seems like she is going to be help for Jack and Mabel, but I would like her to present herself to them. Throughout the text, I might like a character more or less (I am only in chapter 8).
Raina and I discussed the following questions:
ReplyDeleteQuestion four of Author's Craft: Mabel is a lot less social than Jack. When George and his sons come over to help with clearing land, and Mabel is making dinner she thinks to herself that she doesn't want to be too welcoming because she doesn't want people coming over for dinner to be a regular thing. Mabel not being social is probably connected to her depression.
Question six of Author's Craft: The fact that you don't know if the child is part of their imagination or not.
Question ten of Author's Craft: Ivey uses a lot of imagery in her writing and creates clear visuals of the Alaskan wilderness.
Question one of Characters and Motivations: Mabel is clearly the protagonist. The narrative starts off with her and you get inside her the most.
Question two of Discussion Questions: Mabel and Jack were never able to start a family like they'd always wanted to. Now they are getting older and have moves to this new unfamiliar place and there marriage is strained from loss.
9. The lack of quotation marks makes Faina seem as if she isn’t really real.
ReplyDelete10. Ivey incorporates many author strategies such as sensory image, figurative language,personification and many more amazing tactics to create a cinematic image in the reader’s mind.
12. Mabel is the main character in the novel because she is the first one the author talks about. Most of the story revolves around Mabel and her relationship with Jack and Faina.
23. Faina is like the wilderness herself because Jack first created a snowman and then later on the snowman is gone. With the snowman gone all of a sudden a girl appears out of nowhere from the snow itself.
27. Esther Mabel’s friend has many doubts and concerns because nobody else can see her except for Jack and Mabel. Mabel welcomes the child because her and Jack had always wanted a child.
Andrea and Christopher
ReplyDeleteQuestion: How does the author inform the reader about the landscape her characters are exploring?
Answer: The figurative language makes the landscape seem real.
Question: Who is the main character/protagonist in the novel?
Answer: The main character/protagonist is Mabel.
Question:how does the title set the tone for the book? How does it relate to the story told?
Answer: It sets the tone for the book by letting us know that it is going to be about a child.
Question: Why is it important that Mabel is an outsider in Alaska?
Answer: It is important that Mabel is an outsider in Alaska because she tried to kill herself and can't have children.