Here’s a rave MMGM choice to satisfy your need for a white winter story (if you’re like me and seldom see snow) or to cuddle up with while you sip a mug of hot cocoa.  Truly, Breadcrumbs is the kind of story to lose yourself in.

And that was the easy part of the spotlight, because it’s not an easy book to sum up–kudos to Anne Ursu for pulling off the complexity of it!  I’ll be picking up more of her books.

Breadcrumbs is the story of best friends, and each is struggling with that moment when childhood fades and adult concerns press in.  It’s also the story of friends trying to stay friends despite one being a boy and the other a girl–without the intrusion of romance–and what is involved in a deeply interdependent friendship, as well.  So, part one involves an adopted girl, Hazel, who’s parents have divorced and who is trying to adjust to a ‘normal’ school after attending one where rules are a bit more flexible and creativity trumps.  Her best friend, Jack, must juggle his challenging home life with a father who carries everything while his mother wastes away with depression, plus his own growing pains and social complications when his established guy friends at the school resent the addition of his best friend, Hazel.

When he has an unfortunate accident–a shard of a magical mirror that goes straight to his heart–Hazel needs to hold herself together while making Jack remember all that it means to be Jack.  To be successful, Hazel must pair loyalty and courage with a willing heart and her particular affinity for fairy in order to turn her back on common sense and a modern life and follow her friend into a terrible wandering wood.

So, the story feels very modern, in some ways.  But, it is also an evocative tale of fairy tale proportions.  With echoes of every beloved story from Narnia onward, it manages to be nothing like them even as it sits comfortably among them.  A woodsman offers possible aid on a woodland path to a lost girl frightened by wolves…but he’s by no means a hero.  A swans skin is beautiful and just as magical as you’ve always believed it would be…but the wearer is no prince or princess.  Three old ladies spin life-lines of yarn beneath a great tree…but don’t look to them for help or wisdom.  And a terrible snow queen waits at the end of a perilous journey, with the heart of the frozen boy under her icey spell…but the battle to free him won’t be what you expect.  Breadcrumbs is really best described as what it is–a modern fairy tale.

I loved it, I think that’s clear.  But perhaps Apricot-kitty can provide her own insights:

“Great story–quite crazy enough to please even the most convoluted cat’s tale.  However, please warn me next, before we read such a story.  I’ll need to special-order an extra large patch of sunshine.”

Hmmm…or, perhaps, lay in a good blaze?  Since that’s exactly how I plan to spend my Christmas holidays–and blogging break til January–it’s only fair that I supply you guys with a lovely little fire to read beside, as well.

I hope you enjoy it, as well as all the other great books you’ll find featured on Shannon’s blog as part of the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings.  Happy reading, best of holidays, and I’ll see you all in January!

Share, share away: