Blood Red, Snow White: n/a | TheBookSeekers

Blood Red, Snow White: n/a


No. of pages 304

Reviews
Great for age 12-18 years

The Russian Revolution. Fairy tale, spy thriller, love story. One man's life during the last days of the Romanovs, beautifully imagined by award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick. Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award.

Set in the rich and atmospheric landscape of Russia during the revolution that sent shockwaves around the world, this is the partly true story of Arthur Ransome - a writer accused of being a spy.

Fictionalising history and blending it with one man's real life, Marcus Sedgwick expertly crafts this innovative and stimulating novel of three parts - a fairy tale full of wise and foolish kings, princesses, wishes and magic; a bleak and threatening spy thriller, and a love story . . .

 

This book has been graded for interest at 12+ years.

There are 304 pages in this book. This book was published 2010 by Hachette Children's Group .

Find his website at www. marcussedgwick. com and follow him on Twitter @marcussedgwick

This book contains the following stories:

Blood Red, Snow White
Set at the time of the Russian Revolution, the end of a centuries old dynasty, the rise of the Bolsheviks sent shockwaves around the world. This is the story of one man who was there. It's real history - about the riches and excesses, the glory of the Russian nobility, Nicholas and Alexandra, their haemophiliac son, Alexei, notorious Rasputin, Lenin and Trotsky who ruled from palaces where the Czars had once danced till dawn. The man was real too, his name was Arthur Ransome. He was a writer, accused of being a spy, perhaps even a double agent, and he left his wife and beloved daughter and fell in love with Russia and a Russian woman, Evgenia.Fictionalising history and blending it with real life, part i is told as a fairy tale. Wise and foolish kings, princesses, enchantresses (characters more suited to fairy tale than reality), wishes and magic, Russia with its vast cold plains and mighty cities, its riches and poverty, all play a part in the downfall of the Czars and rise of the

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
A queen sat sewing and pricked her finger. A spot of blood fell on her white cloth and she sighed. 'How I wish I could have a daughter with cheeks as red as blood, hair as black as ivory and skin as white as snow'. The queen's wish was granted and soon she gave birth to a beautiful daughter who she named Snow White. But then the queen died and the king remarried. The new queen was very vain and every day she would ask her mirror 'Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all', to which the mirror would reply, 'You are the fairest o queen'. Time passed and the queen got older and her face dropped, and Snow White grew into a beautiful woman. The day came when the mirror in all honesty could not say that the queen was the most beautiful of them all, but had to reply 'O queen lovely as you are, Snow White is now fairer'. The queen was very cross and ordered a huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart as proof of the deed. The huntsman could not bear to kill Snow White so he left her alive in the forest and took back the heart of an animal instead. But the mirror revealed that Snow White was still alive and living as a housemaid with seven dwarfs. The Queen set out to kill Snow White herself. When the girl ate the poisoned apple she dropped down as if dead and the Queen was satisfied. The dwarfs wept over the glass coffin. A prince was so taken with Snow White's beauty that he lifted her from the coffin, dislodging the apple and so brought her magically back to life. The two were married, and the Queen superceded.

This book has been nominated for the following award:

The Whitbread Award
This book was recognised by the The Whitbread Award, now called 'The Costa Book Awards'. These are a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. They were inaugurated for 1971 publications and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006 when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.

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