Oldies But Goodies
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: Odd and
the Frost Giants
by Neil Gaiman
by Karen S. Wiesner
The day I picked up the young adult novel Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, read and wrote this review, the snow was coming down heavily outside just one day away from Christmas eve. This magical story was perfect for such a day spent indoors looking out at the world of chilly beauty.
Written specifically for World Book Day in 2008, this nod to Norse mythology and the Vikings tells the story of Odd, a young Norse boy whose woodcutter father was drowned during a Viking raid. In the time since, his mother (herself a "prize" captured from just such a raid) has remarried a man with a large brood of his own children. He has no use for a crippled stepson.
The village where Odd was born doesn't understand him. Instead of seeing him as the good luck his name is intended to be--"the tip of a blade"--they see him as, well, odd. Crippled after trying to use his father's axe, Odd decides to go away from this town where he's looked upon with disfavor and where winter is lingering overlong and the men "fight and fart and sing and sleep and wake and fight again".
Outside his father's old woodcutting cabin, Odd follows a fox and an eagle overhead only to find a great big bear with his paw stuck in the honey-lined hollow of a tree. Odd can either leave the creature be or free it and risk being eaten after its sweet appetizer. Odd has compassion, and soon the animals reveal that they can not only talk but they aren't what they appear to be. They're gods from Asgard, transformed by a frost Giant that tricked them. Without help, they'll remain in their animal forms forever, powerless.
I have a soft spot for Norse mythology and tales set around the characters that inhabit Asgard, so for me this was the perfect read for a snowy, pre-holiday afternoon. Odd is such a gentle, kind, inventive, and brave soul. This wonderful, light-hearted story should delight kids and adults alike.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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