This is a story about a boy named Kai and a girl named Greda who are neighbors in a

city.

Kai and Greda enjoy gardening and spending time together, but one day Kai's attitude

changes, as slivers of a mystical evil mirror fall in his eye and heart. These slivers have

a negative effect on Kai's attitude, as he begins seeing ugly rather than beauty and

the magnifications of others' imperfections. Because of this he grows distance toward Greda.

Kai then sees the Snow Queen, a mythical figure that controls ice and snow. He attaches his

sled to her sled and they travel to her castle far away in the mountains.

Greda misses Kai and decides to search for him. She meets up with several interesting

characters along the way, including an old woman with flowers, a family of thieves, and

a reindeer who takes her to the Snow Queen's castle. There, she finds Kai and saves him

by removing the slivers of the mirror from his eye and heart with her tears.

In the end, Kai and Greda return home, realizing that they have grown into adults, but are

still children at heart.

As always a lot can be said about this story, but what draws my interest and attention is

the idea that the plot convention of the man saving the woman is reversed in this story.

Also, that this story inspired the movie, “Frozen.”

Most stories are set up where the protagonist, a male, must overcome some challenges, like

a dragon or dungeon, to save someone, usually a female. We see this in a lot of our fairy

tales and children's stories.

Even our video games, like Mario and Zelda, have this same “Hero saves the Princess”

storyline. And it's not that this storyline is bad, but it's nice to see that the roles

can be reversed and the story still works.

Neither Kai nor Greda is made to fit into the opposite gender mold either. Kai is not

feminized and Greda is not made masculine.

Both characters are given different challenges in the story, not because of their roles,

but because of who they are as characters.

Kai is blinded by the glass in his eye and heart and as someone who can be swayed by

what he sees, Kai walks away and lives a cold life.

Greda, on the other hand, stays at an old woman's house during her travels and quickly

forgets about Kai. Without the symbol of the rose, Greda forgets what she is looking for.

Fortunately, she sees a rose and remembers that she is trying to find Kai.

It's hard to imagine that this story inspired the movie “Frozen”, since they are really

nothing alike. However, both stories did take typical fairy tale plots and give them a twist:

in this story, the girl rescues the boy and in the movie, the princess sacrifices herself

for her sister over the prince.

So, let me know what you think about the story in the comments below.

Don't forget to subscribe for more Minute Book Reports and thanks for watching.