Ice Maiden
By Sally Prue
Published by Oxford
ISBN 978 0 19 272965 1
Sally Prue's Ice Maiden is a clever and intriguing mix of reality and fairy story. If the thought of reading anything to do with fairies is not for you, think again. Prue's fairies are not your usual flimsy, goody-goody creatures. The fairy protagonists in Ice Maiden are tough, fierce and fighting for survival; gossamer-winged Tinkerbells they are not.
Ice Maiden is firmly anchored in the real world. We are in Britain in 1939, on the brink of war. In Germany, the Nazis are savagely cleansing their country of Jews.
German teenager Franz and his parents are living, amid much tension, in England. Franz is an outsider. The local teenage boys are wary of the German boy in their village, and they either bully him or give him a wide berth. Franz knows that his parents are members of the Nazi Party, and he does not trust them, leading to a wide gulf between parents and son. Franz has seen frightening things in Germany, and his parents are obviously hiding a lot from him. He's not a particularly happy young man.
But there is one place where Franz feels safe and happy. Outside the village there is a stretch of wild countryside called the common, and Franz spends much time there enjoying the wildlife, trees and plants. It is a place of peace and calm. But Franz does not realise that something is watching him as he walks alone there.
This beautiful stretch of countryside is home to the Tribe, a group of elfin creatures who see humans as foul, clumsy, hideous beings. To their minds, such disgusting demons are to be avoided at all costs: they tie themselves to one another with slave vine strings called emotions, and don't know the meaning of freedom.