Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Durst, S. 2009 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | YA DURST | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.
Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back -- if Cassie will agree to be his bride.
That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her -- until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice .
Author Notes
Sarah Beth Durst is the author of young adult novels Conjured, Vessel, Drink Slay Love, Enchanted Ivy, and Ice, as well as middle grade novels Into the Wild and Out of the Wild. She has been a finalist for SFWA's Andre Norton Award three times, for Vessel, Ice, and Into the Wild. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband and children. The Lost, The Missing, and The Found are Sarah's first novels for adults.
Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-Novels with a fairy tale at their center are ubiquitous, but even in this crowded market, Ice, based on "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," is a standout. Cassie is the daughter of an Arctic scientist and lives in a research station on the ice. Her mother is dead, according to her father, but Cassie remembers a story her grandmother used to tell her about how her mother was the daughter of the North Wind and was stolen away by the trolls. As the story opens, the teen is pursuing a polar bear when it steps into the ice and disappears. Drawn by her feeling that there is something special about the animal, Cassie ventures out after it. The bear is a munaqsri, a keeper of souls for the polar bears. Cassie agrees to be his wife if he will rescue her mother. Although initially fearful, she develops a relationship with Bear based on real love and companionship. All is well until she ignores the prohibition against looking at his face while he is in human form at night. Bear becomes a prisoner of the trolls, and Cassie, now pregnant, begins her quest to travel east of the sun and west of the moon to rescue her beloved. This is a unique and cleverly spun romance for an older readership than Edith Pattou's East (Harcourt, 2003), with a splendidly courageous and smart heroine. Durst flawlessly weaves together romance, adventure, and a modern sensibility to create a highly inventive and suspenseful story of a girl on the cusp of adulthood. Readers will take Cassie and Bear to their hearts.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Durst (Into the Wild) skillfully integrates a contemporary girl into an updated version of the tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, balancing the magical with the modern. Cassie grew up hearing the story of the Polar Bear King and the North Wind's Daughter. On her 18th birthday, she discovers it wasn't a fairy tale-it was the true story of her own missing mother, and now the Polar Bear King has come to claim Cassie for his bride. But if that part of the story is true, than the other part is, too: Cassie's mother lives. Cassie marries Bear in exchange for her mother's rescue, but finds he's more than an animal-he's a "munaqsri," responsible for the transport of souls. Cassie accidentally betrays Bear's trust and he is forced to leave her, sending Cassie on a harrowing adventure that takes her beyond the ends of the earth to save Bear and restore the essential balance of nature. While one of Cassie's many tribulations goes on a tad long, her quest for self-worth, independence, maturity and love, is twisty, absorbing and satisfying. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
This slipstream novel unites tropes of fantasy, science fiction and adventure by including nods to Asbjrnsen/Moe and Perrault tales and scientific research and plunging a courageous but reckless teen heroine into the Arctic wilderness. Cassie, the redheaded, impulsive daughter of a research-station director in the Arctic, follows a huge polar bear until he abducts her to make her his wife. The complex narrative involves Cassie's husband, the shape-shifting polar bear, who is taken by trolls to imprisonment in a castle East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and various spirits native to the Arctic landscape who either help or hinder her in her quest to rescue Bear from captivity. The plot catapults from crisis to overheated crisis and comes to a resolution that will satisfy romantic teens. However, the mash-up of science, folklore and mythology (and the novel's loose interpretations of Inuit spiritual beliefs) causes problems with the suspension of disbelief, while the severe physical challenges that the pregnant Cassie survives with baby intact strain credulity. Fans of fairy-tale retellings are the natural audience for this story. (Fantasy. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In a twist on the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, this enchanting tale tells of Cassie, a young woman who grew up studying polar bears in the Arctic. Cassie, raised by her widowed father and her Gram, was told the fanciful tale of her mother's promise to the Polar Bear King and banishment to the Troll castle. On her eighteenth birthday, Cassie realizes her mom's storywas actually true and makes a promise of her own to the Polar Bear King: if he rescues her mother, Cassie will be his bride. But who is the mysterious Bear and what is his role in saving souls and maintaining the circle of life? Although there is some question as to why Cassie cannot split time between her two worlds, the ending is resolved in a satisfying manner. Told in a descriptive style that perfectly captures the changing settings, Durst's novel is a page-turner that readers who enjoy adventure mixed with fairy-tale romance will find hard to put down.--Koss, Melanie Copyright 2009 Booklist