The Way Past Winter

In Kiran Millwood Hargrave's 'The Way Past Winter' we meet twelve-year-old Mila who lives with her older sister, Sanna, her brother, Oskar, and her younger sister, Pipa, in the Eldbjorn forest - which, for the past five years, has never seen spring and is perpetually locked in the depths of an ice-cold winter. When one snowy night, a menacing bear-like man with a band of young men behind him arrives at their home, Mila, whose mother died several years ago and her father has since disappeared, tries to keep her fear at bay; however, when the next day she learns that her brother has suddenly vanished and is convinced the bear-like man has taken him, she becomes very frightened indeed, especially when she learns that all of the boys in the nearest village have disappeared too. Underneath Mila's frightened exterior however, there lies a strong heart and she is determined to set off in pursuit of the strange man, to find Oskar and help him break free from the spell that she thinks has been put on him. Accompanied by Rune, a strange, mystical young man who lives in the village and who appears to know where her brother has been taken, Mila takes her sleigh and her two huskies, Dusha and Danya, and sets out to rescue her brother, but it is not just Mila's and Rune's lives that are soon in danger as they race across the snow followed by wolves and giant eagles, but the whole of her family who are put in peril as her desperate journey draws to its close...An exciting, beautifully described and very atmospheric story which looks at family, love, loyalty and at putting others before oneself and one which, I have to admit, kept me captivated from beginning to end. Although I'm much older than the targeted age range for this novel (I bought this for a young relative and always read books I buy for children first to ensure they are suitable), I soon found myself taken out of everyday life and in no time at all was travelling on Mila's sleigh, shouting "Farash" and "Stuta" to Dusha and Danya are they flew across the snowy landscape pursued by hungry, slavering wolves and huge-taloned eagles intent on preventing Mila reaching her goal. If I enjoyed this as a middle-aged adult and found myself totally swept up in the story, then I knew that the young relative I bought this for would enjoy it even more than I did. (She did!)4/4.5 Stars.

Bought for my 10 year old daughter who adored The Girl of Ink and Stars. She loved this book too and it’s on its 11th reread. The author has a beautiful turn of phase. This is real quality Children’s/YA fiction with complex themes and characters that resonate. Would recommend for children 9-14 or as a chapter book for adults to read to younger kids 8+

I wish I was in the majority and could give this 5 stars, but for me, this book, while obviously well written, simply lacked the magic and charm I was looking for. My main problem was that the author doesn't set the scene as well as I'd like so I often didn't have a clear sense of place and found that I was trying to imagine what was happening without any clear sense of where the characters were in terms of physical place. Once the characters leave their forest, I just had a vague sense of endless, featureless white: snow, ravines, platforms (?), caves etc without really feeling as if I could see any of it clearly. The climactic scene in particular, whilst darkly unpleasant, felt very vague and not really terribly convincing, so much so that I actually skimmed the last few pages as I no longer really felt invested in the story or the characters.In summary: this book is fantastical (I felt it resembled a computer game with our character surviving increasingly implausible situations to progress to the next level) but like a computer game, it lacked the charm and magic that I seek in a children's book. I'm afraid it hasn't made me want to explore her work further.

I would like to read this book. However, due to the appalling lack of rigorous punctuation within the first few sentences and then throughout the first page, I was too distracted to focus on the language. In primary schools these days, we teach the use of semi-colons and warn of the dangers of comma splicing from Year 5 onwards at least. It is extremely annoying to see publishers/editors of children’s books pay less attention to these rules than the kids they are aimed at. How can we expect the next generation to use punctuation and grammar if it is even ignored in published work? They get tested on this age 11 and most pass their SATs! It’s not that hard to grasp so stop being so sloppy.

I bought this for my School Library as part of a new winter book collection, and because my students adore Kiran Millwood Hargrave titles. Fortunately for me, it was returned just before the Christmas holidays so that I could bring it home and read it myself!I am so glad I did. One of the most language rich books I have read in some time, it hooked me in immediately, and I spent many chapters re-reading phrases and paragraphs to fully appreciate how beautifully descriptive KMH is, and the sheer passion and effort she must have put in to keep this up throughout the whole story to such a high standard. It is the perfect book to share with a class; the aspirational vocabulary would enrich writing. It would also suit independent readers who love fast-paced adventures in fantastical settings, and strong characters who you feel invested in. KMH has done it again - I shall continue to recommend it all year round!