Ponder Post: The Snow Child

I read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey on my return flight from Montreal. I had started this book once before but had been insufficiently engaged to continue it. Being captive on the plane, I had the incentive to be more persevering and I am glad I was. My reading of The Snow Child was well-timed for another reason. Having recently watched the film at the ExpoRail Museum on the struggles to build the trans-Canadian railway across the harsh snow-burdened countryside, I was in the correct heavy snow frame of mind to immerse myself in this book set in the Alaskan wilderness. The novel was an appropriate cap-off to my Montreal trip.

I'd give it four stars, a bit slow in some parts but an overall engaging mix of fantasy, mystery, and suspense that affords an appreciation for the wonder, beauty, and challenges of living in the Alaskan wilderness. Were I the author, I might have written a different ending; but then I would have robbed the reader of exercising his/her imagination.