What We're Reading: Tracy

Troll Weather, by Elizabeth Coatsworth, illustrated by Ursula Arndt.

In our part of the world, March is the month when winter very slowly and reluctantly gives way to Spring. When I was in elementary school, I stumbled across a story set during this tempestuous season, called Troll Weather. It became one of my most beloved books, and I still re-read it every year.

Written by distinguished children's author Elizabeth Coatsworth and delicately illustrated by the equally esteemed Ursula Arndt, it tells the story of a little girl named Selma who lives on the shores of a Norwegian fjord. One day Selma, sent on an errand by her mother, takes a basket of food to the Widow Paulsson, who lives high up in the mountains. The weather turns wild, as frequently happens in March, and the Widow Paulsson tells Selma stories of the trolls, who revel in such storms. Selma becomes obsessed with trolls as the story unfolds. Are they real, she wonders, or legendary, or, in fact, are they something in between?

A beautiful tale, wonderfully told, Troll Weather makes a perfect spring read.