Lanterns Across the Snow

by Susan Hill

Book Overview

As an old woman, Fanny looks back to the country Christmas she had in England when she was nine and realizes the moment when she left her childhood behind her. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517570068
• ISBN13: 9780517570067
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter Publishers
• Length: 79 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Childhood magic + Christmas magic = Unforgettable tale

Fanny is an old woman now, but a Christmas snowstorm brings back memories of a special time when she was 9 or 10 years old -- a Christmas that brought sorrow and joy, wonder and pain."A happy childhood is like a magic circle," Hill writes. "Lit from within, it throws a beam forward into the present. Snow always fell on Christmas Eve, fat and soft as goose feathers, to lie like a quilt upon the ground all winter. That is what Fanny remembers, now that she is old, at another Christmas time."It's a child's view of an English country Christmas that Fanny brings us. Happy memories of a warm and comfortable home and family. The breathless excitement of childhood is in every page, as well as the sense of mystery and wonder at the Christmas story. As her father, the rector of the local church, reads the Bible to his family on Christmas Eve:"Fanny said the words as her father read them, and they sounded a beautiful as music to her, and just as strange, too, simple, yet infinitely difficult, as close and familiar to her as her own name and yet far remote."It's a special Christmas, full of surprises and happiness but before St. Steven's Day is over, Fanny must say goodbye to a special friend and welcome a new one.Susan Hill is an English novelist and broadcaster who lives near Oxford with her husband and two daughters. She has written a simple book that's easy to read and hard to forget.