SuitabookThe Miraculous Sweetmakers: The Frost Fair
Natasha Hastings
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside the child, pausing after the bargain and visits to the Other Frost Fair. Ask what Thomasina knows, fears and chooses, while leaving space to discuss grief or frightening scenes.
- Themes
- Grief and responsibility: Thomasina blames herself for Arthur’s death and pursues a chance to resurrect him, while her family remains affected by grief. The story examines how guilt shapes Thomasina’s choices and presents healing as connected with facing the past rather than simply undoing it.
- Memory and dangerous bargains: A stranger offers Arthur’s return in exchange for Thomasina temporarily surrendering memories and making four visits to the Other Frost Fair. The bargain creates a moral and emotional dilemma: the desired outcome is alluring, but the cost threatens Thomasina’s connection to Arthur and her sense of self.
- Girls’ possibilities in historical London: Thomasina wants to become a sweetmaker, while her friend Anna dreams of opening an apothecary; the story is set amid historical expectations for girls and children’s work. The book takes a critical view of this.
- Worth knowing
- Give particular thought to grief, self-blame, bereavement, a family under strain, frightening supernatural imagery, peril, and references to asthma and mental illness. The treatment of the ending is not clear from the available details.