Why a Booktrail?
Modern: A girl who believes she is plain and ordinary gets lost on a school trip and stumbles into a world of an ice palace, wolves and many deep dark secrets.
The Wolf Princess
What you need to know before your trail
On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves on the wrong train, lost in the middle of nowhere. Thinking themselves utterly lost, they are then rescued by a princess -Anna Volkonskaya -who takes them home to her palace and tells them stories. But the girls are not out of danger yet as this princess may not be all she says and the palace may hold a lot more secrets than they ever thought.
Travel Guide
Like the magical setting of a classic children’s film, this book is visually stunning when you see the images appear in your head as you read. The Ice Palace is at once grand and imposing but also a scary and ruined place – once great but now a shadow of its former self.
But beyond the palace there is a snow covered landscape to chill your heart and the sight and sound of the wolves howling in the background providing an eerie soundtrack to your journey as you cautiously approach the ice palace with only the light of the shimmery moon to guide you.
“The moonlight made every flitter and a light flurry of snow danced about in the dying wind.”
“…dark triangles of pine trees…..” “This was not like the silver forest her father had taken her to in her dreams”
What makes this even more spectacular and atmospheric is the Russian touches – the landscape of course but the history and the language used throughout. As if in a Russian fairytale Princess Volkonskaya and
Russian sounds ‘fat and roly-poly’ and there’s advice that a good cup of tea is enough to relief what the russians call ‘toska‘ – melancholy or sadness.
All these ingredients mix in the Volkonsky forest and the snowy scene is set for a fairytale with dark undertones and secrets.
Where Next?
