Review: Snow & Rose


Snow & Rose

Thank you so much to Random House Children’s Books and Allison Judd for the free copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

Snow and Rose didn’t know they were living in a fairy tale. People never do . . .

The last few years have been great for fractured fairy tales and fairy tale retellings. I am a huge fan of all of those, and actual fairy tales. Emily Winfield Martin’s Snow & Rose is a retelling of the Grimm fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red, a fairy tale I did read as a child but that most people haven’t heard of. Winfield Martin twists the old fairy tale into a wonderful new one, with beautiful illustrations to boot.

In the original tale, Snow White and Rose Red (not the Snow White of dwarf and evil queen fame) are sisters who live with their widowed mother in the woods. One winter night they find a bear at their door. They take care of it all winter, and when it disappears in the summer, the sisters run away to look for it. There is an encounter with an evil dwarf, and the bear ends up killing up. In doing so, the spell put on him is broken and he is revealed to a prince. Snow White marries the prince and Rose Red marries his brother.

This retelling is a bit different.

The sisters are still there, and they live with their mother deep in the woods, but they are not at all convinced that their father has died. When the bear they have been taking care of disappears, the two sisters go after him to try and keep the woodsman from killing him. With a healthy dose of magic, enchantment, and help from a friend, Snow White and Rose Red discover who the bear really is, and their lives are changed forever.

I loved this book, and it would make a beautiful gift for someone who loves fairy tales or magical stories. Aside from the story itself being wonderful, the book is absolutely beautiful. Winfield Martin’s illustrations are gorgeous and the cover would look amazing on any bookshelf. While this is a children’s book (probably age 9 or 10 and up), I enjoyed it very much. It’s a beautiful fairy tale to disappear into for a few hours. I love how the author re-imagined this story and made it more modern, with strength and family as a prize, not a princely husband.

Snow & Rose is a lovely, entertaining book with a strong message about family, loyalty, and what it means to never give up on someone.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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