by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 30, 2010

"High above the Arctic Circle in the land of ice and snow..."

Jan Brett draws a real wonderland, with snow-white Norwegian mountains shining under the northern lights in the night sky. A boy on skis travels to Oslo with his pet polar bear, but he's cold and hungry, and heads for the smoke from a far-off hut. A little girl in a log cabin is preparing sweet porridge, cakes, sausage and fish. But she's also watching her window nervously - because every Christmas Eve trolls break down her door, and then eat everything themselves!

It's a wonderful story book, with lavish pictures that benefit from Brett's attention to details. (In one picture, besides the snowy mountains in the background, she draws every log in the cabin, its dangling icicles, a strange tree in the front yard, plus the worried girl looking out through an intricate window.) Even the stars in the sky become pictures of trolls - and Brett adds extra illustrations both sides of her drawing. It's a technique she's used throughout her 20-year career as a children's book illustrator, and it's even more appropriate for this mysterious story.

As the little boy approaches the girl's cabin in the main illustration, Brett uses the side picture to give readers a glimpse a hiding troll - who also smells the delicious food! There's a two-page illustration showing that the girl's cozy cabin is surrounded by snow, while the two side provide a view of the little girl inside, and the boy and his polar bear as they approach. There's lots to see inside the house - a blazing fire, a rug on the wall, and a copper cattle filled with logs. But in the center of the room, as the girl waits nervously, the left-margin illustration shows the boy and his polar bear reaching her door - while the right-margin illustration shows her father, who's out looking for trolls!

"Knockety knock, knockety knock..."

I've always enjoyed Jan Brett's work, and this story has all the classic ingredients that her fans have come to enjoy. It's got an exotic setting which gives it an "instant fairy tale" feeling - along with some fun and intriguing illustrations. Brett has written two other books about trolls and little children - the "Trouble with Trolls" and its sequel, "Christmas Trolls." And while it's a little scary when the pack of hungry trolls finally invades, they get their just deserts in the end. One troll wakes up the little boy's sleeping polar bear - and he growls and chases them all away!

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