Children's Book: Woman speaks frozen words [s]

[Renee]

I believe I read this book instead of dreaming it, but you never know with me. It was an illustrated book about a woman whose words came out as icicles. She married the king of the country. They would spend the night by the fire where she would speak and he would melt her words in the fire. One day they're attacked by a hostile forces and they camp outside the castle. The king will have to go to war, so she goes out during the night and says thousands of words. In the morning when the dawn comes it melts her words and it turns out she's said a thousand different names--so all the men hear the voices of the women calling them back home. So, they leave. Crises diverted. Sound familiar to anybody?

[Alexandra]

I hope so, it sounds interesting. Is it a children's book?

And if you did dream it you should write it :)

[Renee]

It's certainly one of those magical stories I have from childhood. I remember fabulous blue and creme colored watercolors with it. I think I'll have to get it illustrated if I do end up having to write it.

[bup]

Sounds like a good book. There's another children's story, one of a series of books of tall tales on a farm, where the family thought their house was haunted. Turned out it was just the things they had said in the winter that had frozen and were finally thawing.

Also, this *might* actually help you - the story you're looking was probably inspired by Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel" - in it, there's a voyage through the frozen sea, and thawing of sounds of old sea battles: http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes...

Good luck.

[Renee]

Thanks for some of the clues! I couldn't even find it on google. I think I'm going to be reduced to going back to my childhood library and looking through all the children's books until I find it. That, or write it myself.

[Maria]

Please let us know if you find it, or when you write it, because I want to read it.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

McBroom's Ghost by Sid Fleischman is the one you're thinking of about the farm family with the haunted house. I don't think this is the book Renee is looking for, though, but the whole McBroom series is fun reading.

[The Sheila]

Renee--I've been looking for this story, too. The only reference I could find was to some vaguely similar anecdote in Plutarch (I think I found that information on Wikipedia), but I want to say I read it in a kids' book as well. In my mind, it was part of "The Snow Queen", but that's almost certainly wrong. Maybe try the Lang fairy books?

[Cheryl]

I want to read it too!

[Dylan]

It's the short story Silent Bianca by Jane Yolen. You can find it in this collection: The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales

[Deborah]

I just read Silent Bianca from the post above. The stories in the book are lovely. Very quick read. I believe Dylan is correct, it has to be what Renee is searching for. And thanks for the post because I enjoyed a new book:)

[Deborah]

Also, is there a way to get in contact with Renee? Her post was back in 2007.

[Lisa]

Deborah wrote: "Also, is there a way to get in contact with Renee? Her post was back in 2007."

I'm just messaging her.

ETA: And Deborah, thanks for that alert. Many of the posts here are old. Many members post and then don't keep returning to check, forget about it, stop participating much at Goodreads, etc.

[Renee]

This is great! I can't believe people found this story! For some reason Goodreads hadn't alerted me to the update on this post. I'll be checking out the book from the library to see if this is indeed the story that I remember.

[Lisa]

Renee, Did you mark the thread to "Email me when people comment *"?

Well, thanks so much for returning and letting us know. I'm glad the members here helped you find the story, maybe. Please return and let us know when you know for certain.

Which story of the suggested ones do you think it is?

[Renee]

Ah, yes! I do have it set to email me, but my yahoo keeps bouncing emails. I still have the books on order, but I suspect it's the Jane Yolen story. In my memory it was an illustrated story that stood alone, but I could have added that myself in my own memory.

[Renee]

I just read "Silent Bianca" from a collection of short stories by Jane Yolen. This does to be essentially the story I remember, with slight differences: I recall it being a stand alone illustrated story; and when she leaves a trail of frozen words that calls away the soldiers it was avoiding an epic war in her country, rather than a test her future-husband set up. I believe both of these variations may have been effects of my memory ascribing the story with more drama and vividness than is evident in the more plain and fairy-tale standard of the story in Yolen's collection. Thank you to everybody who gave input on this story! We can consider it FOUND.