Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs
By Anne Ursu
Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn’t help it – Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn’t fit anywhere else.
And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it’s never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack’s heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it’s up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him.
Anne Ursu, acclaimed author of the Cronus Chronicles, has written a stunningly original fairy tale of modern-day America. Inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Snow Queen,” Breadcrumbs is in turn a remarkable middle-grade adventure, a dazzling ode to the power of fantasy, and a heartbreaking meditation on how growing up is as much a choice as it is something that happens to us.
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IndieBound Indie Next List
School Library Journal Best Book
Publishers Weekly Best Book
Amazon Best Books of the Year
"Like a fairy-tale heroine, Hazel traverses the woods without a breadcrumb trail to save a boy who may not want to be saved in this multi-layered, artfully crafted, transforming testament to the power of friendship." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The creepy fantasyland that Hazel traverses uses bits from other Andersen tales to create a story that...is beautifully written and wholly original. It’s certainly the only children’s fantasy around where Minnesota Twins All-Star catcher Joe Mauer figures into the plot." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The evocative magical landscape, superbly developed characters (particularly dreamy, self-doubting, determined Hazel and lost Jack), and the piercing sadness of a faltering childhood friendship give this delicately written fantasy wide and lingering appeal." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
2011 NPR Backseat Book Club — Featured Selection
“Wonderfully distinct, delightfully told and destined for a long life on the shelf.” — The Wall Street Journal
“Devastatingly brilliant and beautiful...Ursu has sculpted a rich and poignant adventure that brings readers deep into the mysterious, magical, and sometimes frightening forests of childhood and change. Breadcrumbs is one of those rare novels that turned me on my head then sat on my heart and refused to budge.” — Ingrid Law, Newbery Honor-winning author of Savvy
“This is a lyrical book, a lovely book, and a smart book; it dares us to see stories as spreading more widely, and running more deeply, than we had imagined.” — Gary Schmidt, Newbery Honor-winning author of The Wednesday Wars
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Ursu is the author of National Book Award nominee The Real Boy, Breadcrumbs, a contemporary retelling of “The Snow Queen,” and the three books in the “Chronus Chronicles series–The Shadow Thieves, The Siren Song, and The Immortal Fire. Anne teaches at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children, and lives in Minneapolis with her family. Find her online at www.anneursu.com.