Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy

Since I am now assigned to order the children's fiction books at my library I am trying to read the more current publications.  This one has gotten good reviews this year from several different sources.  

Ophelia's mother has recently died and Ophelia and her sister have gone with their father to a northern city.  Her father is an expert on swords and has been hired to set up a sword exhibit in a museum.  While wandering the museum, Ophelia finds a boy locked in a room who claims to be centuries old.  He says that he must be released and complete his mission or the evil Snow Queen will take over the world.  Being a scientifically minded girl, Ophelia does not believe his story, but she does feel that she should help release him from captivity. As she goes to search for the key for his room, she sees things, and encounters creatures that defy her sense of the real. In the end she must let go of logic, and follow her heart, and the promptings from her departed mother, to defeat the Snow Queen.  There are several reasons this book is getting so much attention.  All during her adventure Ophelia, and her father and sister, are dealing with the grief from her mother's death.  So there is a mixture or fantastic adventure, and realistic mourning.  The writing is very good, and the descriptions of all the interesting things she encounters in the museum makes an old  humanities major, like myself, drool. How I would love to wander through rooms and rooms of artifacts, unimpeded as she does. Character, plot and setting all come together to make this a great read. (228 p)