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WORK TITLE: Snow Summer
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1974
WEBSITE: http://kitpeelgardens.com/
CITY: Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
http://kitpeelgardens.com/about/ * married to writer M.L. Peel.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1974; married M.L. Peel.
EDUCATION:Studied garden design.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and garden designer. Has worked in foreign news media for more than a decade .
WRITINGS
Contributor to Country and Town House.
SIDELIGHTS
Kit Peel is a writer and garden designer. He worked in foreign news media for more than ten years before turning his attention to pursue his passion of gardening. After spending a year living on the Greek island of Hydra, he began working at the renowned gardens of Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. Peel supplemented his passion by completing a three-year foundation degree in garden design, where he graduated with distinction. Peel has additionally published garden features for Country and Town House.
Peel published his first novel, Snow Summer, in 2016. Unsociable teenager Wyn is a loner, partly due to the fact that she has special abilities that she cannot explain. She is unaffected by extreme cold, she cannot be burned by fire, and her eyesight is also superhuman. Wyn lives with a minister, his wife, and their daughter, Kate, after the death of her doting foster mother. Kate is her only friend in this isolated Yorkshire Dales town. However, all is not right. The landscape is covered in snow and ice despite it being the end of summer. The mysterious Tawhir comes to town, and Wyn is immediately drawn to him, even though there is something unsettling about their meeting. He and others push her to accept her true identity and embrace the mystical element of her being, largely to her stubborn refusal. Eventually, Wyn learns of her past connection to Tawhir and uncovers the reason why the weather pattern is so odd.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly said that the novel’s “dense mythology … can be challenging to follow.” However, the reviewer conceded that “lush imagery and a topsy-turvy plot should keep readers invested.” Writing in Resource Links, Angela Thompson observed that “Peel describes his setting with rich and lyrical language.” Thompson admitted that “the premise of Peel’s story is one that echoes fantasy stories past. … What is unique is how well Peel weaves in his social commentary on global warming/human interaction with the environment.”
In a review in the Voice of Youth Advocates, Courtney Huse Wika described the novel as being “a thought-provoking thrill.” Wika concluded: “Packaged in a rich, fantastical narrative with extraordinary characters, this book is sure to please a wide range of readers.” Reviewing the novel in School Library Journal, Beth Wright Redford observed that various “instances of cultural appropriation are problematic elements in an otherwise thoughtful fantasy.” Redford noted, however, that “the book concludes with the timely allegorical message.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor claimed that this “refreshing read” has “plenty of tension,” characters that are “thoroughly realized,” and “settings that amplify and uphold the natural-world underpinnings of the plot.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, July 2, 2016, review of Snow Summer.
Publishers Weekly, August 29, 2016, review of Snow Summer, p. 93.
Resource Links, October 1, 2016, Angela Thompson, review of Snow Summer, p. 36.
School Library Journal, September 1, 2016, Beth Wright Redford, review of Snow Summer, p. 143.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December 1, 2016, Courtney Huse Wika, review of Snow Summer, p. 78.
ONLINE
Kit Peel Gardens Website, http://kitpeelgardens.com/ (June 9, 2017), author profile.*
Kit Peel Gardens designs bespoke, elegant gardens that are both low maintenance and beneficial to wildlife. We are also collaborating with leading experts to design urban gardens that protect your home from air pollution. Our goal is to create a beautiful space for you to enjoy all year round, by day and night.
Kit Peel
Kit Peel worked in foreign news for over a decade, before spending a magical year on the Greek island of Hydra where he rediscovered a childhood love of flowers. After moving to the Yorkshire Dales, he worked in the famous gardens of Newby Hall and continues to restore the wildflower fields around his house. He recently completed a three-year Foundation Degree in garden design, graduating with distinction. A published author, he also writes garden features for Country and Town House magazine.
Kit-Peel-main-pic-4x3
Favourite Collaborators
architect and designer tom
Thomas Chapman-Andrews
Thomas qualified as an architect, then joined Heatherwick Studio in 1998 as only the second employee. When he left Heatherwick in 2011 the Studio had grown to be world-renowned for outstanding design, creating iconic works such as the 2012 Olympic cauldron, Rolling Bridge, and the UK pavilion for the Shanghai Expo. As a Studio Team Leader, Thomas held direct responsibility for the delivery of major projects and was part of the strategic leadership of the business.
EDWARD-ROUND-bw
Edward Round
Ed is a senior gardener at the famous Newby Hall Gardens, arguably the best plantsman’s garden in the North of England. The son of a nurserywoman, if there’s anything Ed doesn’t know about horticulture, we’re yet to discover it! Ed will advise on specific planting and maintenance plans.
innoscape-bw
Innoscape
While we will always tender projects if requested, we have worked with Innoscape on several projects. Ben and his team are Yorkshire-based landscapers, specialising in innovative, high quality construction. Having trained as garden designers, they are easily able to translate and execute designs. Wherever possible, they work with local artisans and source local materials.
Snow Summer
Publishers Weekly. 263.35 (Aug. 29, 2016): p93.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Snow Summer
Kit Peel. Groundwood (PGW, dist.), $16.95 (200p) ISBN 978-1-55498-357-5
Even after her adoptive sister is frozen by an ice spirit in the form of a polar bear during a winter without end, high schooler Wyn March is reluctant to believe that she is the only one who can save her best friend, as well as restore the Earth's seasons. Although Wyn knows she is different from others in her British village of Pateley, she finds it difficult to fathom that she is the reincarnation of Mugasa, one of a pair of dragons charged with keeping the Earth in balance. With snowstorms blanketing the land even in the height of summer, Wyn unlocks her powers--communicating with trees, animals, and wind--through the help of Tawhir, a wind spirit, and Thwaite, a Green Man archetype both fierce and nurturing. Debut author Peel coats his story in a dense mythology that can be challenging to follow as Wyn faces off against ominous spirits wishing to take over the world in its chaotic state, but lush imagery and a topsy-turvy plot should keep readers invested. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)
Peel, Kit: Snow Summer
Angela Thompson
Resource Links. 22.1 (Oct. 2016): p36.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
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[A/G]
PEEL, Kit: Snow Summer
Groundwood Books, 2016. 223p.
Gr. 7-10. 978-1-55498-357-5.
Hdbk. $16.95
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Snow Summer, set in the English country-side village of Pateley Bridge, is a contemporary commentary that relies on the conventions of the fantasy genre to reveal the follies of humanity. The village, and indeed most of the world is stuck in an interminable winter. In addition to being faced with life in a difficult climate, Wyn and her friends Kate and John, are also conflicted about the development of their local forest, Skrikes Wood. John's father is the lead developer and the project provides jobs for local people at the expense of their natural surroundings. John starts a petition to stop his father from moving forward, but his efforts do not come to fruition. Hope seems to be lost until Wyn meets a mysterious stranger. Introducing himself as Tawhir, he acts like he knows Wyn and she feels like she know him too. She is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by him. Tawhir claims to know who Wyn really is. She is pretty sure he is crazy. He claims that Wyn has the power to restore the temperate weather and save the world. She thinks he must be confusing her with someone else.... she is just an ordinary girl.... isn't she?
As the story progresses, Tawhir reveals the world of spirits and elemental forces that inhabit Skrikes Wood. The spirits are likewise suffering under the oppression of winter. Their local earth spirit, Thwaite, has taken all the species he can relocate to underground caverns, but this solution is only temporary and his powers wane. There are also rebel spirits who blame the human world for all of their problems and seek to end the human influence. Wyn does indeed have the power to affect change in both the human and the spiritual realms. With the help of Tawhir and Thwaite she awakens the spirit within her--that of a powerful dragon champion, Mugasa. Time is of the essence, however. Will she be able to reach the full extent of her powers before winter sets in forever?
Peel describes his setting with rich and lyrical language. The forest and its spirits come alive with his writing and you are drawn into Pateley Bridge. He creates an unlikely hero in Wyn and gives her the challenge of accomplishing in three days what it took her mentor spirit, Thwaite, ten years to master. All the while, Wyn resists. Her attitude borders on selfishly petulant yet she is remarkably successful and skilled in every way. It is a convenient though necessary circumstance and one has to suspend one's disbelief. The premise of Peel's story is one that echoes fantasy stories past--Universal spirit is reincarnated (by choice or not) into a lower or unknowing being and must triumph over his/her limitations of form and resume rightful spiritual supremacy. What is unique is how well Peel weaves in his social commentary on global warming/human interaction with the environment.
Thematic Links: Climate Change; Realm of Fantasy; Self-Discovery; Friendship; Activism; Human Development
[Good, even great in times, generally useful!
[A] Average, all right, has its applications
Peel, Kit. Snow Summer
Courtney Huse Wika
Voice of Youth Advocates. 39.5 (Dec. 2016): p78.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
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4Q * 4P * M * J * S
Peel, Kit. Snow Summer. Groundwood/ House of Anansi, 2016. 200p. $16.95. 978-155498-357-5.
Abandoned as an infant, Wyn has always felt like an outsider, unable to connect with those around her except for her foster mom, Mrs. March. The only place she truly feels at home is with nature; bird songs and wildflowers and trees speak to her in a way that humans do not. So when her foster mom dies and climate change leads to a punishing, unending winter, Wyn is set adrift. Though taken in by a new, loving foster family, she is plagued by nightmares and flashes of memory that seem to belong to another person in another time. When strange beings with seemingly magical powers begin to appear in the forest searching for her, she is finally forced to acknowledge her differences from other people: her affinity for fire, her inability to feel cold, and her ability to see things that others cannot. Suddenly she is thrust into the center of a magical war for the future of the world, but only if she can access the ancient power within her will she be able to save the land and those she loves.
Snow Summer is a thought-provoking thrill of a debut novel. A rich allegory, the book asks readers to consider humans' destructive power over the earth but also encourages them to think about their personal relationship with nature. It investigates questions of ownership and the ethics of care, and of personal responsibility and awareness. Packaged in a rich, fantastical narrative with extraordinary characters, this book is sure to please a wide range of readers.--Courtney Huse Wika.
Peel, Kit. Snow Summer
Beth Wright Redford
School Library Journal. 62.9 (Sept. 2016): p143.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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PEEL, Kit. Snow Summer. 223p. ebook available. Groundwood. Oct. 2016. Tr $16.95. ISBN 9781554983575.
Gr 6-8--A contemporary, nature-based fantasy. Teenage Wyn March lives with her foster family in the Yorkshire Dales of England. The world has suffered years of increasingly cold weather, culminating in a snow-covered summer. Mystical characters start appearing in the protagonist's town of Pateley Bridge, urging her to accept her true nature and to use her great powers to end the winter. At first, she resists her magical gifts, and her journey to acceptance forms the heart of the novel. The author's skills as a garden designer and beekeeper are evident in the lovingly created natural and supernatural settings, which are full of the plants and animals of northern England. The protagonist is a prickly and sometimes unsympathetic character, and it's left to appealing secondary characters like her kindly foster father and sister to provide some human warmth and emotion. Wyn's alter ego and some minor characters use the names of places or gods from various cultures, such as Mugasa of the Bambuti of the Congo Basin; Uluru, which is sacred to the indigenous Anangu of Australia; and Denali, which is central to the creation story of the Koyukon Athabascans of Alaska. These instances of cultural appropriation are problematic elements in an otherwise thoughtful fantasy. The book concludes with the timely allegorical message that climate upheaval comes from nature spirits' anger at humans' treatment of the earth. VERDICT Consider for collections where environmental fantasies are popular.--Beth Wright Redford, Richmond Elementary School Library, VT
SNOW SUMMER
by Kit Peel
Age Range: 12 - 14
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KIRKUS REVIEW
In a world that’s always winter, a young girl discovers what she really is.
Wyn, a prickly, unsociable girl, is plagued by odd abilities that she keeps secret—fire doesn’t burn her, cold doesn’t affect her, and her eyesight is extraordinary. Her only friend is Kate, daughter of the minister and his wife, who have brought Wyn into their family after the death of Mrs. March, Wyn’s beloved first foster mother. But things are out of balance in the all-white English countryside where Wyn lives. It’s nearly the last day of summer, and the landscape is still covered in ice and snow. Then Tawhir, a mysterious boy, appears, and Wyn is almost overpoweringly attracted to him even as she feels a deep unease. Gradually, unwillingly, Wyn uncovers both what is causing the odd weather and her long-ago connection with Tawhir. Peel writes with a deeply felt sense of setting and with just the right touch of restraint to allow his characters to reveal themselves fully. Nature spirits and dragons are introduced but without hoopla and as a seamless and essential part of the entirely logical plot. Thoroughly realized characters, a story that combines high fantasy with the pagan world of nature spirits, settings that amplify and uphold the natural-world underpinnings of the plot, and plenty of tension characterize this refreshing read.
A must. (Fantasy. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 11th, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55498-357-5
Page count: 224pp
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 2nd, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15th, 2016