#734 of 1001 · August 4, 2022

Do you need some respite from the summer heat? Perhaps you’re dreaming of frozen lands far away? Let me take you there with The Ice Palace by @angelamcallisterbooks and Angela Barrett. Anna’s family lives in a hot, dry land near a grand palace, where her father works in the kitchens. One day, the young girl falls ill and must rest in bed. Her father has been tasked with a secret project for the grand banquet table, for which he continually visits the palace’s ice house, just across from Anna’s bedroom window. Though he will not reveal the secret, he tells her stories of the North Wind rushing through icy halls among snow-white mountains, of a princess in an ice palace in a land where snowflakes always fall, of white bears and ice ships and snowbirds. Night after night, Anna dreams herself in all of these wondrous scenarios. Finally, her father reveals the surprise: he has meticulously carved an intricate ship of ice. McAllister’s text masterfully conjures imagery of sweltering heat and shivering cold. Barrett’s illustrations neatly weave back and forth between the tender emotional realism in Anna’s relationship with her father and the mystical imagery of the girl’s fantasy dreamworlds. #ice #palace #summer #wind #snow #princess #bears #ship #dream #dreams #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks