Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Crow-Girl lives happily with her grandmother in a cove far from any neighbors. When the old woman dies, Crow-Girl buries her and leaves to make her way in the world. Taken in by a greedy woman who demands her labor and steals her belongings, Crow-Girl eventually escapes and finds new friends with troubles and talents of their own. Together they create a community of friends and family in the cove that was Crow-Girl's original home. There's a fairy-tale quality about this well-written story. There is also unflinching realism not only about the grandmother's death and burial but also about the cruelty, greed, violence, pain, and sadness that the child finds when she ventures beyond the shelter of her home. Still, young readers will be comforted when Crow-Girl survives the loss of the only person who loves her and goes on to create her own family from those whom she befriends and grows to love. Translated from the Danish, this novel has clean, spare prose, a compelling story, and several scenes that readers will long remember.

School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 4-7-Set in the indistinct past, this is the poignant story of a girl who lives with her grandmother on a lonely stretch of coast in Denmark. The two survive by collecting driftwood and carefully harvesting the gifts of the sea. The coziness of their life is punctuated by Grandmother's awareness that her own life is tenuous; she offers her granddaughter gentle advice that serves her well in the future. After the woman dies, the child bids farewell to her beloved home and follows a pair of crows as they fly along the shore. Hoping to find help, she arrives in a village where she works for a coldhearted woman who gives her the name Crow-Girl and tries to take advantage of her. Following her heart and the crows, the girl moves on in her search for a home. Her strength of character, innate kindness, and ability to care for herself prove invaluable in creating a new life and family. The justice of unfolding events and the satisfying ending will please readers, who will enjoy watching the pieces of the plot fall into place. The symbolism and power of names thread through the narrative. Touching on universal themes, this quiet adventure story has the depth and flavor of a tale from long ago and far away. It's a rewarding read for youngsters who are fond of the details and the simplicity of earlier times.-Carol A. Edwards, Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Horn Book

This folktale-like Danish novel follows an orphaned peasant girl as she gathers together a new family made up of other lost souls like her. The group, including a motherless little boy and his grieving father, an abused mother and daughter, and a reclusive shepherd, grow to rely on one another for physical and emotional sustenance. The prose is as luminous and uncluttered as the stark coastal setting.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Marking this Danish author's English-language debut, this lyrical novel opens in a remote cottage, where a woman has taught her granddaughter time-honored ways of wresting a living from the sea. Knowing that she is dying, the grandmother passes along to the apparently nameless girl several nuggets of advice, for example, that she must "continue wishing and hoping, for then, at last, you will get what was wished and hoped for—even if it is in a completely different way from what you had imagined." Although the girl realizes the futility of her sole wish—that her grandmother not die—after the woman's death the child finds the strength she needs to remain hopeful and does, indeed, find happiness in unexpected ways. Packing her few belongings, she follows the coast to a hamlet where a scheming woman offers her shelter and where she stumbles into the name Crow-Girl, due to her coloring and her curved nose. The lass has the good sense to flee from the evil-doer and the good fortune to encounter a sequence of individuals (some of whom have also endured monumental loss) with whom she forges mutually fulfilling bonds. The peripatetic story winds to a close that, despite its fairy tale quality, is credible and satisfying. Imagery involving water, hands and crows becomes a resonant element of the narrative. Readers will hope that more of Bredsdorff's sturdy fiction reaches these shores. Ages 8-12. (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">May)