“It was a winter they would tell tales about. A winter that arrived so sudden and sharp it stuck birds to branches, and caught the rivers in such a frost their spray froze. A winter that came and never left.” So begins Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s ode to the frozen north, to sibling love and to the lure of adventure. This is Hargrave’s third novel for eight- to 12-year-olds and like her award-winning debut, The Girl of Ink & Stars, it features a girl on a quest who will not easily give in. Told in vivid, often lyrical language, The Way Past Winter portrays a richly imagined world that is rooted in myth, magic and folk tales, while appealing to modern sensibilities and concerns.
Mila is the middle of three sisters who live in the great forest of Eldbjørn in a house with windows made from ice. They have a brother named Oskar; their mother died in childbirth and their father abandoned them shortly afterwards. One day a mysterious stranger, accompanied by a group of boys, turns up asking for food and talking about treasure. The stranger, we soon learn, is a great bear, a mythical creature responsible for imposing perpetual winter on the forest. On learning that Oskar has three sisters, he says: “Three? What a curse.” He will, of course, come to regret underestimating these resourceful girls. That night, Oskar vanishes. In the morning, the sisters argue about the reason for his disappearance. Sanna, the eldest, believes her brother has been seduced by tales of money, but Mila insists that Oskar has been taken against his will and decides to set off in pursuit through the frozen landscape.
And it is this idea of keeping faith with those you love that drives the story forward. Hargrave has a great eye for poetic imagery, but, for me, it is her convincing depiction of the emotional push-and-pull of sibling relationships that makes her story memorable. As Mila steers her husky-drawn sled through the twists and turns of this wintry tale, young readers will stay with her every step of the way.
• Linda Buckley-Archer’s The Many Lives of John Stone is published by Simon & Schuster. The Way Past Winter by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Chicken House, £10.99). To order a copy for £9.45, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99.
