The Snow Spider Trilogy

Jenny Nimmo's The Snow Spider Trilogy is a Welsh magic story for 9 year olds about a boy who gives a brooch to the wind and gets a spider back.

What happens

It's Gwyn's ninth birthday. His grandmother Nain turns up with five odd presents. A piece of seaweed, a yellow scarf, a tin whistle, a twisted brooch and a little broken horse. Time to find out if you're a magician, she tells him.

The scarf belonged to his sister Bethan. Four years ago, on Gwyn's birthday, she went up the mountain in a storm to look for his lost sheep. She never came back.

Gwyn's family has never recovered. His mum tries so hard, with a party and a proper birthday tea (jelly, sugar mice, the lot). His dad can't bear it. He comes home in his black suit, spoils everything and says out loud what he's been thinking. That Bethan is gone because of Gwyn.

It's a hard moment to read. But Gwyn is such a steady, kind boy that you're on his side straight away. He doesn't shout back. He goes upstairs and thinks about the good bits of the party instead.

Then the wind comes. Gwyn climbs the mountain and gives the brooch away, and on the way home he finds a snowflake on his shoulder. It moves. It becomes a tiny silver spider, and Nain names her Arianwen.

It's beautifully written, quiet and a bit eerie. The farm and the mountain feel very real (you can almost feel the cold). Nain is wonderful, dancing in the candlelight, letting the hens lay eggs on her armchair and brewing tea from nettles. The magic is tied up with old Welsh legends about Gwydion, so it feels ancient.

Bethan's disappearance is backstory, not something that happens in front of you. The grief in the house is strong though, and the dad is harsh, so that's worth thinking about if your reader has had a loss of their own. For a thoughtful reader who likes magic mixed with real family feeling, it's something special.

What to read next

This edition gathers Gwyn's whole trilogy together, so there's plenty to keep them going. If they're after another winter story where a family is missing someone and magic comes knocking, try The Way Past Winter, where Mila's brother vanishes the night a strange rider comes to the door.