Ursu’s multilayered, dreamlike story stands out from the fantasy/quest pack.- Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City Although this is a fantasy, its grounding in psychological realism and focus on Hazel’s feelings makes it a fine choice for readers who prefer realistic fiction. It is Hazel who is changed by her experience, and who learns to approach her life with positive energy. Jack is who he is, a boy who is growing away from her. Unlike the triumphant ending of Andersen’s “Snow Queen,” Hazel’s rescue of Jack and its aftermath is realistically bittersweet.

Hazel’s challenge consists largely in persisting in her quest to rescue Jack despite her insecurity about their friendship and the lack of a breadcrumb path in a confusing world. She encounters shadowy threats in the form of creepy, unscrupulous adults who have their own agendas and victims: a girl ensnared in the body of a bird, and children trapped as flowers. During her search for him, Hazel’s realistic world collides with surreal fantasy and she is thrown into the eerie, threatening woods of broken and transformed fairy tales. When a demon drops a shard of an enchanted mirror into his eye and he becomes drugged and manic under its influence, he accompanies the Snow Queen into the woods. She is bullied and misunderstood, and her best friend, Jack, is spending more time with his male friends than with her. Hazel Anderson’s 10-year-old world is teetering on the unsteady foundation of her parents’ separation, as she is now at a new school where she feels like an outsider, both as a dreamer and as an adoptee from South Asia.

Breadcrumbs by Erin Mcguire