Bouwman, H.M. 2008. The Remarkable & Very True Story of Lucy & Snowcap. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.
On the surface, Lucy and Snowcap have very little in common. Lucy, a native of the Colay Islands, is dark-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed, with a large birthmark on her face that looks like a hand. Her family is essentially poor, living off the island; the English have “stolen” their livelihood by taking over the market for fishing, which used to be the Colay people’s main source of income. Snowcap, an English child, is fair-skinned, with white-blonde hair and light-colored eyes. Her father had been the Governor of Tathenn, formerly the main island of the Colay islands, when a group of English prisoners were shipwrecked on the island nearly 12 years earlier.
It is the deeper similarities that bring them together, however. Both girls have experienced a painful loss; the men of Lucy’s island, including her father and her cousins, have all been turned to stone. Snowcap’s parents were murdered; as far as she’s concerned, the Colay people are responsible. When Lucy’s mother gives birth to a little boy, the last child born on her island, Lucy heads to Tathenn to try to save her brother from the curse. While traveling, she encounters Snowcap, who has discovered the truth about her parents’ death, and is now running for her life.
The Remarkable & Very True Story of Lucy & Snowcap is a story of magic and mystery and of unexpected friendships, and as such, is an enjoyable read. Some seemingly unnecessary elements cause the story to drag at times, but overall, Bouwman’s descriptive style keeps things moving.
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