Of Wind and Winter

Book excerpt: When Aneira awakens to find she has been sprited away into the night by none other than the dread witch Baba Yaga, she is faced with a choice: help Baba Yaga find her sisters' magical skins and Aneira can go home to her family or refuse to help and lose her mother and sisters forever. The task is simple. She just has to steal the Lord of Winter’s heart by lulling him to sleep with the Harp of the Seven Winds. Once she has it, all Aneira has to do is lock it in a magic jar Baba Yaga gives her. After that, she’s free to go home. The only way to obtain the harp, however, is to succeed at the three tasks set forth by the winds themselves—winds that are bent on protecting the harp from mortal hands at all costs. But stealing the Lord of Winter’s heart turns out to be more complicated than Aneira realized, and she must decide whether returning to her family is worth the price of the world losing Winter forever. Key Words: fairy tales, fairy tale, the snow queen, series, middle grade, children's, fantasy, magic, baba yaga, the north wind, quests, high fantasy Key Words: fairy tale retelling, fairy tale, fantasy, magic, high fantasy, epic fantasy, baba yaga, the snow queen, ya fantasy, fairy tale series, tales of the snow queen, fantasy series