Where Snow Angels Go: From the author of the number one bestseller Hamnet

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It’s an interesting subject because it’s a painful subject. Losing a child is one of the most visceral fears for parents, isn’t it? I’ve always been really interested in Hamnet and why he’s so overlooked and forgotten by history.

One night, a young girl named Sylvie awakens to find a glimmering presence with wings in her room. The snow angel she had made the previous winter has returned. Every snow angel made by someone becomes their real angel who will look after and protect their creator. He has arrived in response to a need he has sensed in her, but he is also surprised by her ability to see him as it violates all the rules. Realizing that she is suffering from a fever, the angel awakens the mother, disappearing before she can see him. Sylvie’s illness lingers for months, but in those months she never forgets that the snow angel was there, and tries to summon his return. It’s been quite a year for you - Hamnet winning the Women’s prize and being named Waterstones’ book of the year… A few days before releasing “Snow Angel”, Reneé shared this statement on her social media platforms: I was very like Sophie [in the book], a child who liked to take risks and the book does have elements of my childhood in it. Most obviously, she has a long illness [at the age of eight, O’Farrell missed a year’s school with encephalitis]. There are also elements of all three of my children woven in it. In all fiction there are bits you make up and bits you borrow from your own life and the lives of those around you. It’s not my natural environment. I had a terrible stammer through my childhood and adolescence and I still don’t feel very confident verbally.Resources/Activities: Winter is here, a time of adventure for children. After the next snow, go outside with your children and make your own snow angels. Take pictures of your snow angels. You may even want to draw pictures. O’Farrell’s touching, slightly eerie story is rendered beautifully by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini. . . . Since its artwork is paired so well with the poetry of the words, ‘Where Snow Angels Go’ has the feel of a timeless bedtime story. Sylvie wakes one night, suddenly, without knowing why. Then she sees the most spectacular sight – a pair of wings, enormous in size, made of the softest snow-white feathers imaginable. An angel in her bedroom … a SNOW angel! He tells her that he is here to look after her, for Sylvie is not as well as she seems…

The song touches on several topics- substance abuse, self doubt, heartbreak, loneliness, trauma, and more. The songs lyricism includes several euphemisms for cocaine use. Snow, burning nose tips that are hot and cold, explicit descriptions of addiction, and “making angels in the snow” , as well as referring to the extremely traumatic event that she wrote about on her social media platforms. First, save the person,’ Sylvie could hear him say, ‘then fly down … no, that’s not right … Find the … No, hang on … first, fly down. Second, find the person. Third …’ He shook his head, muddled, shutting his eyes, as if for inspiration. ‘Now, what comes third? I’ve forgotten and I really ---‘” Yes, although I can’t say what it is as I don’t like to talk about it. But writing is a process. Obviously prizes are lovely to get, that knowledge that somebody, a reader or a panel or a child in a library, has responded to your work. But I think after that you just had to forget them. You have to keep doing good work. This is a heart-warming and magical book that made me smile throughout. Perfect for these winter months and I can see a lot of children, once the snow has arrived, rushing to make their own snow angels. What happens to a snow angel after you leave it behind? A little girl discovers she has an unusual protector in a modern fairy tale with gorgeously detailed illustrations.

Both Hamnet and Where Snow Angels Go deal with childhood illness – is it a subject that’s particularly on your mind? Maggie O’Farrell’s is a modern fable/fairy tale that will fill kids with wonder. It is a cozy bedtime read aloud that reminds me a bit of the books that were read to me as a child. The narrative is a bit lengthy, but lends itself to the author’s beautiful lyrical prose. I love that the story began with a bedtime story she made up for her own children. Where Snow Angels Go will lead to many meaningful discussions. I like how this story explains the idea of a guardian angel, the phenomenon that we often feel of someone watching us or protecting us if we get into danger. And I like how Sylvie tries to get the angel to appear again but can’t. The idea of a snow angel becoming a guardian angel is a new one to me but I just love how this story has brought this idea to life and the ending of the tale is lovely with a heartwarming end for all the characters involved. Have you ever woken up suddenly, in the middle of the night, without knowing why? Best-selling and award-winning master storyteller Maggie O’Farrell weaves an extraordinary and compelling modern fairy tale about the bravery of a little girl and the miracle of a snowy day. In your memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am , you talk about your childhood stammer. Do you get nervous speaking in public?

SNOW ANGELS does a great job at depicting lives in such communities. Especially during that part of the year when the landscape is barren and suicides spike. The profound sense of hopelessness is evident in many of the characters. Those without resources fall into profound despair. Those better off look into themselves. The result is always tragic or counter-productive. Only youth sees promise, has hope, etc.

Where Snow Angels Go is a children’s book by award-winning author and this year’s Waterstone Book of the Year winner with her Novel Hamnet, Maggie O’Farell. I haven’t read her work before, although I did try to buy Hamnet from a book shop yesterday but they had sold out. After reading this book I will make sure I manage to get a copy as her story-telling skills and imagination are breathtaking. Eventually, it is revealed that he is the snow angel that Sylvie made last winter, and he’s there to save her. Sylvie is sure she doesn’t need saving. A little over a year ago I had a traumatic experience. I don’t love to throw that word around lightly, so I understand the weight it holds. My last week in Jersey, I texted Alexander that I wanted to write about it when I got home. A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. If the illustration for the cover is any indication, this is a beautifully illustrated fairy-tale-like story of a young girl’s belief in the power of wishing and dreams, especially those that come true.

bár a könyv a gyerekek kimondatlan félelmeiről szól, megnyugtató válaszokat is ad ezekre. A bűbájos rajzokkal és hangulatos szöveggel pedig tökéletes téli olvasmány: megeleveníti a havat. S ha van rá alkalom, olvasása után biztos mindenki örömmel készíti el a saját hóangyalát. There’s a lot less you have to explain. If I go into Will’s study and he says: “I’m working. I can’t talk”, I don’t take offence. Plus, we are always each other’s first readers. He said about one of my books: “Well, it’s not bad, you have to rewrite half of it.” That was a bit of a blow. He was right – that was annoying. This is such a lovely story and a really special one to read during the winter time. Children will love the tale of the snow angel and may be inspired to create their own snow angels if they are near any snow. I really love how the whole guardian/snow angel idea has been thought out and it’s a story I think many families will enjoy reading again and again.Using line, color washes, and arresting perspectives, the illustrations in this lengthy picture book deftly convey the realism of Sylvie’s world, the wonder of her snow angel, and the sweetness of their bond in scenes of drama as well as stillness. . . . An appealing contemporary fairy tale told with humor and warmth. This is such a fun and magical story about angels and what happens to the ones you create in the snow. Sylvie wakes up one might to find someone in her room. The someone isn’t quite sure what they are supposed to do but Sylvie spots that it’s an angel standing in her room. Sylvie soon finds out that this angel is the same one she made out of snow one day, but he’s here for an important reason, because Sylvie isn’t well and the snow angel has come to save her. I’ve recently discovered Donal Ryan. I read one book and was so excited when I looked him up and realised he’d written all these other novels. So now I’m reading my way through them. They remind me of early Edna O’Brien, but they’re still very much about modern Ireland today. In her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am, Maggie O’Farrell writes about the close encounters with death that have defined her life, including a period spent in hospital as a child, gravely ill with encephalitis. "Nearly losing my life at the age of eight made me sanguine – perhaps to a fault – about death," she explains. "I knew it would happen, at some point, and the idea didn’t scare me; its proximity felt instead almost familiar."