Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey

Winter’s Child by Cameron Dokey, Simon Pulse, 2009.
ISBN: 978-1416975601

Plot Summary

Best friends Grace and Kai’s hard lives are made brighter by the stories they share. One of their favorites is the tale of the Winter’s Child, a girl their own age who is doomed to wander the earth healing other people’s broken hearts until she finds someone to heal her own. Although Grace is the more flighty and adventurous of the two she dismisses the story as pure fantasy. Kai, however, is obsessed with the Winter’s Child and believes her to be real. When Grace wakes one morning to find Kai gone she immediately knows that he has followed after the Winter’s Child. Deeply pained by Kai’s abandonment, Grace begins her own journey in search of him and, along the way, comes to terms with her own deep longings and dreams.

Critical Evaluation

Winter’s Child by Cameron Dokey is one of the many retold fairy tales published by Simon & Schuster under the Once Upon a Time series. Most of the tales, including Winter’s Child, are mediocre with confusing plots and/or incomplete character development. Although Cameron Dokey is one of the better, perhaps best, authors in the series, Winter’s Child sadly falls short of what it could be. The tale starts off well enough. Although Grace and Kai grow up as neighbors and best friends they are clearly two different entities, each with their own passions and dreams. Unlike the original tale, Kai does not turn mean and abandon Grace for the Winter’s Child (or Snow Queen as she is called in the original) rather he is provoked by Grace’s thoughtlessness. The Snow Queen herself is reimagined in Dokey’s tale to be a girl the same age as both Grace and Kai. Instead of being wicked, she is simply looking for the right person to heal her heart. In fact, the Winter’s Child is the best part of Dokey’s tale. While the initial characterization in Winter’s Child is intriguing and well-written, it cannot make up for the plot holes and incomplete characters found in the latter half of the novel.

When Kai follows after the Winter’s Child, Grace quickly realizes that she has behaved poorly towards Kai and begins her own journey. One of the most intriguing and poorly developed characters Grace meets is an elderly woman who doesn’t even have a name as Grace simply refers to her as the old woman. This woman saves Grace from drowning, promising her that she is safe and can stay with her as long as she wants. It quickly becomes apparent that the elderly woman’s intentions are sinister as she does not allow Grace to leave her cottage. “There was something about the way the old woman posed [her]…questions that alarmed me,” Grace recalls, “The only protection I could give myself was to hold my tongue” (Dokey, 2009, 143). When Grace realizes that the old woman’s love is making her a prisoner, something that she feared Kai would do to her himself, she sees the cottage as it actually is—a decrepit, old shack. This, of course, leads readers to believe that the old woman is, in fact, a witch who has bespelled her cottage as a way to entrap young girls. When the old woman learns of Grace’s escape she is furious and sends a flock of crows after her. Of course, Grace escapes aided by sunflowers and her pet hawk and readers never seen the old woman/witch again. While it is clear why the witch is included in the story as this is how Grace realizes that Kai’s love for her is quite different than what she originally supposed it to be, readers are left with lingering questions. Why did the witch seek to entrap Grace? Is the witch truly evil or simply lonely?

To be fair, the original tale by Hans Christian Anderson sheds little light on the subject. In Anderson’s tale Grace (or Gerda as he names her) is also rescued by a witch who longs to keep her as her very own. Anderson’s witch, however, is more kindly than Dokey’s. “ ‘I have long been wishing for a dear little maiden like you…and now you must stay with me, and see how happily we shall live together’” (Heiner, 3rd story para 5). And when the witch realizes that the roses in her flower garden will remind little Gerda of her lost home she makes them disappear fearing Gerda will run away (Heiner, 3^rd story para 5). Indeed, Anderson writes that although “the old woman could conjure…she was not a wicked witch; she conjured only a little for her own amusement, and now, because she wanted to keep Gerda” (Heiner, 3^rd story para 5). In fact, when little Gerda leaves the witch’s house the witch does not even try to stop her. So what are readers to make of Dokey’s reimagined witch? It seems a shame that Dokey did not take the opportunity to flesh out the witch’s character like she did with Grace, Kai, and the Snow Queen, instead leaving readers to wonder about the witch’s motivations.

The witch’s incomplete story is not the only flaw in Dokey’s tale; she also employs a deus ex machina at the end of her story in order to ensure a happy ending for all. I cannot elaborate on this point without spoiling the ending but suffice it to say that everyone receives a happy, and very improbable, finish to their tale. Overall, Winter’s Child is a haphazard novel. It is clear Dokey is a skilled author as she creates a well-rounded, complex character in her Winter’s Child and yet she cannot seem to carry this skill over into her creation of other characters. I can only hope that any subsequent tales she crafts have better developed characters and more polished endings.

Heiner, H.A. (2007, June 30). The Annotated Snow Queen [Web log] Retrieved from http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/snowqueen/index.html

Reader’s Annotation

Graceful and ageless, the Winter’s Child is cursed to heal the hearts of others until she can find someone to heal her own. When Kai seeks to help the supposedly fictional Winter’s Child will his best friend Grace follow him or abandon their friendship forever?

About the Author

Growing up in a family of authors, it’s no wonder that Cameron Dokey chose to become one. "I've always wanted to be a writer,” Dokey remarked in an interview with Contemporary Authors, “even though I haven't always known what I wanted to write”. As a child, Dokey observed her father who would write for two hours every evening. “I began to realize that my father was doing something special,” she explained, “Once I'd realized that, the certainty began to grow upon me that, someday, I would be a writer, too”. Initially Dokey tried her hand at acting, secretarial and retail work but soon found herself working for the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington as an exhibit writer. As an exhibit writer she began to explore different types of writing which led her to become the author she is today. Dokey’s works span several genres including horror, historical fiction, and fantasy. She is perhaps best known for her reworked fairy tales such as The Storyteller’s Daughter (a retelling of the Arabian Nights) and Beauty Sleep (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty).

Currently, Dokey has composed over twenty novels and short stories for young adults and hopes to pen more. Some of the projects she wishes to pursue include a novel for older teens, a picture book, and a cookbook in honor of her mother who died before Dokey became a full-time author. When not writing, Dokey enjoys spending time with her husband and four cats.

All quotes from:

Literature Resource Center (2005, June 15). Cameron Dokey. Contemporary Authors Online.

Additional information gleaned from:

Cameron Dokey (2011, June 12). Retrieved June 15, 2011 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Dokey

Genre

Fantasy, Retold fairy tales

Tags

Winter, romance, male/female friendship, spells, single-father household, grandmothers, magic, witches

Curriculum Ties

This book connects to lessons on folklore and fairy tales as well as postmodern, and possibly feminist, reinterpretations of original stories. It could also be used as an example on how to re-imagine a story and make it your own.

Booktalk Ideas

--What would you do if your best friend deserted you by running away with another girl (or if you are a guy, another guy)? Would you follow them or try to forget about them? What if your best friend deserted you in order to pursue a dream of their own? Would your response be the same?

--Do you believe that everyone’s name has a meaning? What do you think of when you hear Deirdre, Petra, or Grace?

Reading Level/Interest Age

Reading Level: 5^th grade

Interest Level: 6^th-10^th grade (11-16 yrs)

Challenge Issues

N/A

Why Was This Included?

Although the books included in the Once Upon a Time series are imperfect I almost always love a retold fairy tale. I decided to read this book as Cameron Dokey is one of the best authors in the series and I felt that this book made a good juxtaposition to Keturah and Lord Death.