The Girl Who Froze the World

Combining the imaginative powers of ABC's Once with the whimsical humor and irony of Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm, Fairendale is an epic middle grade fantasy series that follows fairy tale villains, unexpected heroes, and the magical world that unites them all.

What happens when the world freezes?

Izzy is frustrated with her magic, mostly because all it seems to do is freeze things. After a Vanishing spell sent her from the land of Fairendale to the frigid land of Guardia, she does not need more frozen things around her. She hates the cold with a passion. She wants to leave the land, but she has no idea where to go. So she stays in a cave and tries to do the best she can. Hidden away from people. Protected from all the dangers of the northern world.

When Izzy steps on a shard of glass, a broken mirror, and learns it has magical properties that allow her to see the true natures of the people around her, she feels a bit more powerful. A king and some Yetis discover her hiding place, and the mirror tells Izzy they are dangerous. She flees to another cave, which she turns into an ice castle made just for her. She locks its doors and creates an impenetrable ice wall around it. She keeps the shard in her pocket.

But alone means loneliness, and Izzy misses her family and especially her best friend, Ralph. She sends a magical message across the distance, calling Ralph to come to her. He miraculously shows up at her ice castle, but the ice shard she keeps in her pocket has burrowed into her eye. It ruins everything she sees. She no longer trusts her best friend, to say nothing of the king and the Yetis outside her castle, trying to get in. Izzy locks Ralph in the dungeon of her ice castle, despite his pleas for freedom. Will she remember who she is in time to save herself, Ralph, and the many others who might be frozen by her ice powers?

The Girl Who Froze the World is the nineteenth book in the Fairendale series and retells the story of The Snow Queen, a popular fairy tale. Fairendale is an epic fantasy middle grade series that explores both familiar and unfamiliar fairy tales, legends, myths, and folk tales. The world of Fairendale revolves around villains and heroes—all on a quest for what they believe is right. Throughout the series, the story of the royal family of Fairendale is woven into the story of fairy tale children fleeing for their lives—children who become what we know as fairy tale villains (according to traditional stories), for one good reason or another.

One cannot always know, at first glance, who is the villain and who is the hero.