On Winter’s Eve

C. D. Alexander's On Winter's Eve is a cosy winter fantasy for 9 year olds about a farm girl desperate to see the little creature who leaves footprints in the snow.

What happens

Every snowy morning, Pip drags a chair to the window to look. And there they are. Small tracks coming out of the woods, past the chimney and off towards the barn.

They belong to the Tompte. He's a farm spirit from the woods, as small as a child and older than anyone, with red boots and a beard tucked into his belt (or so people say). Nobody ever sees him. He watches over the animals, keeps the hens laying all winter and borrows things. Sometimes he leaves Pip presents. A red apple. A carved wooden fox. A trail of maple leaves leading to a handful of hazelnuts.

Pip's mum thinks he's a blessing. Her dad thinks he's a thief. What could a Tompte possibly want with a sickle in winter? (And where have his tankards gone?)

That family squabble is where so much of the warmth comes from. Mum and Dah tease each other about everything, even how many days the winter festival should last. Dah sings the Winter's Deep song terribly. There's a baby brother, an elkhound called Rup and a very grumpy barn cat. It feels like a real home.

Then Dah tells her that seeing a Tompte means seven years of bad luck. Which of course makes Pip want to see him more than ever. Wouldn't you?

There's a darker edge to it as well. Wolves are coming out of the woods early and circling the neighbours' barns. Pip visits the graves of her two brothers, who died before the story begins, and leaves them little stones as gifts. It's handled gently, but it's there. The ewe in the barn is being fattened for the winter harvest too, which a very soft-hearted reader might notice.

It reads like an old fairy tale told by the fire, full of songs and chores and snow. If your reader loves the feeling of winter, with gifts and secrets and something magical just out of sight, they'll adore it.

What to read next

A True Princess would make a lovely follow-up. It's another farm girl in a far-north fairy-tale world, where a little elf lives under the house and the midsummer sun never sets. Lilia is a foundling who decides to run away rather than be sold to the village miller.