Book Club Night Kit
The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey
Cozy night
A childless homesteading couple in 1920s Alaska builds a little girl out of snow one evening, and the next morning a real child seems to be moving at the edge of their woods. It is a hushed, snow-lit fairy tale about longing, tenderness, and the stubborn hope of making a life in a hard place.
Come In, It Is Snowing In Here
Bring your softest socks and your copy of The Snow Child. There will be stew in mugs, cranberry cider on the stove, and a very quiet Alaskan winter to talk about.
Reading level: Moderate
Pages: 432
Best for: A club that likes to be moved rather than to debate, and happily lingers over a second cup of tea
Discussion
Warm-up
- 1.Where were you reading this one, and did the snow in it make you want blankets, a window seat, or a trip to Alaska?
- 2.When you were a kid, what did you build out of snow (or mud, or sand), and did you ever secretly half-believe it was alive?
Digging in
- 1.Mabel and Jack are quiet people who love each other badly and well at the same time. Which small gesture between them softened you most?
- 2.The Bensons arrive loud and generous into a very silent book. How did their warmth land for you, and who in your life is your version of Esther?
- 3.Ivey writes winter as both beautiful and genuinely dangerous. What did this book make you feel about cold, and about the comfort of being indoors while something wild is outside?
- 4.The fairy tale book from Mabel's childhood follows her north. What story from your own childhood has stayed with you in a way you cannot quite explain?
Going deep
- 1.The novel never forces you to choose between wonder and explanation. Where did your heart land, and did you find that choice comforting or a little lonely?
- 2.This is a book about wanting something very badly and loving whatever arrives instead. Without giving anything away, did reading it feel like being held or like being ached open?
On the table & to sip
To eat
Hearty moose or beef stew with pulled-apart bread
The homestead supper of the book, meat and root vegetables simmered all day, served in mugs so people can hold them in their laps
Cranberry and spice hand pies
Alaska lowbush cranberries show up in the book's foraged, hard-won pantry; make them small and warm so they pass easily around a couch
Sourdough biscuits with butter and birch or wild berry jam
Sourdough is classic Alaskan homestead baking, and biscuits are the most forgiving thing a host can make at the last minute
To sip
Spiced cranberry cider, kept warm on the stove (no alcohol)
Non-alcoholic, tart and red like the berries picked in the snow, and the pot on the burner does your hosting for you
Hot cocoa with a splash of brandy
The after-the-cold-walk drink, indulgent and a little fortifying, the way a homesteader would thaw out
Honey hot toddy with lemon
Sweet, steamy, and nursing-a-cold cozy, perfect for a book that spends so much time outdoors
Run of show
7:00
Come in out of the cold
Slippers or thick socks by the door, stew already simmering, cider on the stove. No agenda for twenty minutes.
7:20
Mugs and warm-ups
Everyone serves themselves stew and takes the two warm-up questions while standing around the pot.
7:45
Settle in with blankets
Move to the softest seats. Hand out question cards and let people pick one they like rather than going in order.
8:15
The heart of it
Work through the theme questions slowly. Let silences sit; this is a quiet book and quiet answers are the good ones.
8:45
Sweets and the deep two
Bring out hand pies and cocoa, then ask the two deeper questions while everyone is sugared and relaxed.
9:10
Trivia, scorecards, and goodnights
Low-stakes trivia, fill in scorecards, send everyone home with a bookmark and leftovers.
Host tips
- Keep one lamp off. Candles or string lights do more for this book than any decoration you could buy.
- Pass questions on cards and let people choose. Nobody should feel called on in a cozy room.
- Make the stew the day before. It tastes better and it frees you to actually sit down with your guests.
Playlist
Hushed and snow-muffled: solo piano, fiddle, and soft folk voices, quiet enough to talk over
- 01 Snow - Ane Brun
- 02 Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
- 03 Wintersong - Sarah McLachlan
- 04 Nuvole Bianche - Ludovico Einaudi
- 05 White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
- 06 Winter Winds - Mumford & Sons
- 07 The Snow It Melts the Soonest - Anne Briggs
- 08 Holocene - Bon Iver
Trivia
- 1.Which state does The Snow Child take place in, and roughly which decade? (Alaska, in the 1920s.)
- 2.Eowyn Ivey's novel is a retelling of a folk tale from which country's tradition? (Russia, the Snegurochka or snow maiden tale.)
- 3.Which major literary prize was The Snow Child a 2013 finalist for? (The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.)
- 4.What is unusual about the author's first name, Eowyn? (She was named after the character Eowyn in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.)
- 5.What job did Eowyn Ivey have when she wrote the novel, one that is famously close to books? (She worked as a bookseller at an independent bookstore in Alaska.)
- 6.Was The Snow Child Ivey's debut novel? (Yes, it was her first novel, published in 2012.)
- 7.Where does Eowyn Ivey live, and how does it relate to the setting? (She lives in Alaska, the same landscape the book is set in.)
- 8.What kind of life are Jack and Mabel attempting when the novel opens? (Homesteading, trying to farm and survive on a new Alaskan claim.)
Bookmarks
Print, cut, and tuck one at every seat, a small keepsake from the night.
Rate the book
Coziness of the reading experience☆☆☆☆☆
How much it moved me☆☆☆☆☆
The snow and the setting☆☆☆☆☆
Tenderness between characters☆☆☆☆☆
Would I press this into a friend's hands☆☆☆☆☆
One word for how this book left me: ______________________
The moment I want to reread on a cold night: ______________________
Something I would have brought Mabel and Jack: ______________________
That's a wrap
Thank you for coming
We hope the company was good and the conversation even better. Until the next chapter.