"Vande Velde creates a new twist on a fairy tale
complete with evil sisters and filled with suspense, danger, and a longing for
home."
—VOYA,
December
2008
*
"The
protagonist’s true identity comes as a fantastic surprise and will have
readers looking back for clues even as they shudder at the chain of events that
brought about her appearance in the woods that fateful day. Like the witch,
Vande Velde weaves a spell around her readers with this well-written tale."
STARRED
REVIEW
—School
Library Journal,
November 2008
"Thoughtful
readers will appreciate the subtlety of the sophisticated story, and the
effective mystery and almost poetic flow of the language make this book stellar
readaloud material as
well."
—The Bulletin
of the Center for Children’s Books,
November
2008
"Questions of identity and the nature of evil run throughout
the introspective narrative as the girl struggles to understand herself and her
relationship with the world—even as the selfsame narrative twists and
turns its way to a satisfyingly devious conclusion. A quick read; taut and
superbly
suspenseful."
—Kirkus
Reviews,
October 1, 2008
"Vande Velde, noted for
her well-crafted riffs on fairy tales, has written her darkest yet, a story of
greed, jealousy, and insidious evil that will haunt the reader for some time to
come."
—Booklist,
July 2008
