Treasures of the Snow
| Author | Patricia St. John |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | L. F. Lupton |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Genre | Christian children's story |
| Publisher | C.S.S.M. |
|
Publication date
|
1950 |
| Pages | 222 |
| 823.91 |
Treasures of the Snow is a children’s story book by Patricia St. John. Originally published by CSSM in 1950, it has been reprinted over a dozen times by various publishers, including braille versions published by the Royal National Institute for the Blind in 1959 and by the Queensland Braille Writing Association in 1996. The book is still in print today.
Over the years it has been translated into and published in many languages, including Hungarian, Finnish, Danish, Chinese, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Korean, Mari, Faroese, Polish, Welsh, Serbian, Bosnian and Russian. An audiobook version in English was produced by Blackstone Audio in October 2005, available in CD, mp3 and audio cassette formats.
Treasures of the Snow was Patricia St. John's second book, started soon after the end of World War II. The theme was forgiveness – as she wrote in her autobiography, “The world was settling down after the war, but as the atrocities came to light there was so much anger and hatred. I remembered the boys coming back from the war to wives who had proved unfaithful. I remembered the faces of those who had seen the first photographic exhibition of the horrors of Belsen and the state of the bombed cities of Europe; the resentment of those who could not forgive others, the remorse of those who could not forgive themselves, and I knew that this generation of children needed, above all things, to learn the meaning of forgiveness.”
The story is set in Switzerland, where the author spent some time as a child, and is written for children aged eight and above. The narrative is centred on three children, and explores love, hatred, death, disability, repentance, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and reconciliation. Woven through the story runs a frank description of the children’s thoughts, motives, struggles, feelings and fears as well as their prayers and their developing Christian faith.
Annette Burnier lives with her father, elderly grandmother and young brother Dani in a small village in the Swiss mountains. When she is eight years old her mother dies just after Dani's birth, and since the family is too poor to afford a nanny, Annette takes the responsibility upon herself, arranging with the schoolmaster to study at home under her grandmother's guidance. When Dani is old enough for her to return to school, she does well and often gains top marks. On Dani's fifth Christmas, he puts his slipper outside in the snow, hoping that Father Christmas will bring him a present. In the morning, to everyone's astonishment, a tiny white kitten has snuggled into the slipper. Dani calls him Klaus and the two become inseparable.
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