Frozen: A Sister More Like Me

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  Something, I haven't done in a while is a storybook review. Well, today I'm taking a look at a book that comes to us from the world of Frozen.  So join me as we head back to Arendelle as for the first time in forever, I take a look at A Sister More Like Me.  

Team

Author

Barbara Jean Hicks 

Now,  I'll freely admit that I'd never heard of Barbara Jean Hicks before reading this book but it appears that she has quite a few children's books under her belt.   You can check out her work and learn more about her on site.   Here's a link.

Illustrator

Brittney Lee

Perhaps, one of the coolest aspects of this book is that Brittney Lee, one of the artists from Frozen actually did the illustrations for the film.   That explains why they look so gorgeous. 

 




The art is just gorgeous and almost gives me a Mary Blair type vibe and that adds to the beauty and with the scenes with the sisters as little kids,  cute.  If you want more from Brittney Lee, check out this concept art of Elsa.

Now, this is just concept art but the art in Frozen and A Sister More Like Me are beautiful.   Here's another look with Anna arriving at Elsa's ice palace.

The art had to be my favorite aspect of this book. Every page was a delight to look at.  It was just so pretty. 

Cover

I really like like the cover as it shows the two different personalities of Anna and Elsa.   With Anna, hanging upside down, you get the idea that she is the fun-loving sister, that is perhaps a little clumsy, not ditsy, I would never disrespect Anna like that whereas Elsa is restrained  and dignified.  And the look on her face comes across as if she is wondering what her little sister is doing.   

The Plot

The plot to this book is admittedly, a bit simple and it has been done before many times over in children's media.  That does not make it bad, though. The book starts with Anna and Elsa as little girls and shows that they were at one point in their life, very close.

But just like in the film, the sisters drift apart and become isolated from one another after Anna gets hurt.  And I was impressed that a book for such a young audience didn't shy away from showing the incident that caused the sisters to drift apart. 

 



And this is pretty much, where the story actually kicks in. As we follow Elsa, and Anna throughout their lives, wishing for a sister more like themselves.

Elsa  wishes for a sister that is more classy and refined and more dignified, while Elsa wants a sister that is more fun-loving and silly.  As they show the differences between them and as  the book goes on,  we see how much have they changed over the course of their lives.

 

 

The book, while it does skim over the events of the film and condenses it down a bit, it is still handled rather well in the end.  Perhaps, one of my favorite moments from the book is when see a grown Anna looking at a picture of her big sister. 

I don't  know how well, you can make out the text in that page but the first line really struck me.

You were the picture of perfection, every day, no matter what

I view this line as Anna both looking up to older sister and wanting to be like her but also sad that she isn't like Elsa.  In many respects, this particular line is very much like  Anna's cut song,  More Then Just The Spare.  I bring up this song because like that line it delves into Anna truly feels about her relationship with Elsa.  As if, she cannot measure up to pedestal that both the citizens of Arendelle  and more importantly, Anna herself have placed Elsa on.  Not realizing that Elsa is far from perfect herself and while the book really doesn't show her fear such as this scene from the film.

I still find it rather interesting to get this insight from Anna,  as that is perhaps one of the biggest things with her character.  Not understanding that Elsa shut out Anna out of her life, not because she stopped loving her little sister but rather because of how much she loved Anna.  And yet from where,  Anna stands, she doesn't understand this as she was never informed of why there was rift for so many years.  You'll also notice the last line on that page. 

I tried to understand you, but the door was always shut

Here again, we see doors make another appearance, when talking about Frozen.  If you'll recall my look at the Party Is Over! scene,  I made mention of how Anna in that instance was trying to open the door that she put had always been shut. That as we know from the film is perhaps Anna's biggest regret and this one line reinforces that notion.

 As the girls grow older, they come to realize that they don't need a sister more like them as they are more then happy for the sister, that they have in their lives.    

Now, the book does re-work the ice palace sequence to be where Anna realizes that her older sister is something special and that she doesn't need a sister more like her.   I understand why they would  do this, as the main focus of this story is the relationship between the sisters.  And in that sense, I also understand why Olaf,  Kristoff, and Hans (Yay!) do not appear in this book.  Though, one could make the argument that Olaf should've appeared as he is the repersantion of the love that Anna and Elsa had for each other as young children and rediscovered as young ladies.    This book was highly enjoyable,  it had a great story that continues on the theme of true love between sisters that the film portrayed and not to mention that the art was gorgeous.  It's so pretty.   I could go back and just look at the pages of the book, just to take in every little detail.

Characters

Elsa & Anna

Now, I've decided to group the sisters together as this book was solely focused  on their relationship and how they've drifted apart over the years.  And this book focuses on how they wanted a friend, the wish for a sister more like themselves but it took them a long time to realize that they just needed to reconnect with each other.  They went from this at a young age...

To this...

To finally reconnecting as adults.

My Final Thoughts


All in all, this book is a great look at the relationship between Elsa and Anna. And how much, they mean to one another.  And how, they needed to rebuild their strained relationship that had develop over the years.  It was very cute and very enjoyable.