tek's rating: ½

Snow Treasure, by Marie McSwigan (pub. 1942)
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This is something I read in elementary school and must have done a book report on, though I don't remember what grade I was in. I suppose it must have been the early 80s, anyway. And I read it again in Dec. 2017-Jan. 2018. It's based on a true story, but as far as I know, all the characters and details of the book are fictional.

It's set in 1940, in Riswyk, Norway. When Nazis occupy the town, the locals come up with a plan to sneak their bank's gold past them. After the bricks of gold bullion have been hidden in a cave, children pack the bricks on their sleds, and transport them to a fjord, where a fishing boat is waiting to take the gold to America. It takes several weeks to move all the gold, and all the time there is fear that the Nazis could find out what's going on. The captain of the boat is named Victor, and his nephew, Peter, is the leader of the children who are risking everything on this mission. Some of the other children include Peter's little sister, Lovisa, and friends Helga and Michael. Each one of those four leads a group of children, two groups each on alternate days, making a twelve-mile journey.

Well, I don't want to say any more than that about the plot. It's not a long book, anyway. And I think it's probably better appreciated by children than adults (which is natural, since it's written for children). There's a lot of repetition of certain facts, which I found mildly distracting. Like, pretty much every time the value of the gold in kroner is mentioned, the book also mentions how much it's worth in American dollars, which just seemed unnecessary to me. And every time Uncle Victor's first mate, Rolls, is mentioned, it's also mentioned that he is "the mate." It just seemed to me like there were lots of little things like that that the author must have expected young readers to forget ridiculously easily. I don't necessarily mind reading a book that writes down to a child's comprehension level, but sometimes I think that level can be underestimated, and become patronizing. But whatever. Other than that, it's basically a good story. And this seemed like a good time to reread the book, just for the sake of seeing people get the best of Nazis. We need that, these days.


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(Image is a scan of my own copy.)