We totally missed on a white Christmas, but now that we have snow, I am fully ready to bust out the winter books! I’m not a huge fan of the white stuff in real life, but I love love love books about it.
No Two Alike
Keith Baker
Beach Lane Books
ISBN: 978 1 4424 1742 7
Just as no two snowflakes are truly alike, though they may be close, so it is with other things in the woods in this simple, simply lovely books of the winter woods. Short rhyming couplets accompany beautiful illustrations layered with snowflakes against pales blue skies – honestly this is maybe the first book I’ve seen where I’ve been surprised to find that the images were created digitally, something I usually find off-putting. Here, though, a sweet pair of bold red cardinals flit through the pages and show us their world in the woods, and I am so enchanted, even once I knew that, i didn’t care. The fact that it ends on a note of friendship? Only perfects the whole thing, because if there’s one thing I love more than a book filled with snowflakes, it’s a friendship story. ~love!~
Over and Under the Snow
Kate Messner
Chronicle Books
ISBN: 978 0 8118 6784 9
A child and father enter the woods, cross-country skiing and watching for wildlife. As the dad tells the child about the animals and how they live over and under the snow in winter, the reader learns as well, but it’s never didactic, with language that is quiet, and nearly poetic. The quiet of the woods is nearly palpable, in fact, and when the dad points things out, it’s just a word or two, like he doesn’t want to disturb the forest – it’s hushed, and a little bit magical, just like being there.
The day wraps up with a bonfire, the tired trip home, and tucking into bed, with the animals etched in the stars above outside. There are notes at the end about the animals and their winter world, for those who want to read a little more, too.
The illustrations in this book are simple in a retro fashion, and largely in the muted tones of browns, rusts, and pale blues of a winter forest. With thick, matte paper, the design of the book as a whole echoes the stillness and beauty of the text and the woods. It really is a wonderful winter book.
Red Sled
Lita Judge
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 978 1 4424 2007 6
This nearly wordless picture book (sounds are the only text) tells the story of a bunch of animals who borrow a red sled parked outside a house one night and have some wild fun riding it down the hills.
It is comic in the tale it tells, but the real laughs are drawn by the expressions on the faces of the animals, which are slightly cartoonish, though the overall style is softer, sketched and painted with beautifully hued shadows and the deep, dark skies of nighttime.
It’s a great one for sharing with younger kids, especially, with little language, and a very simple, but funny little story of something that happened one night.
