Children's Picture Books about the Snow

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

11 Dec 2006 05:39 PM

It's the season! Depending on where you live, you're either shivering in the cold, rejoicing because you aren't, or dreaming of a white Christmas. Almost nothing brings in a festive mood like seeing those flakes falling from the sky, and so I've chosen to review a couple of picture books about playing in the snow.

First is "Cat and Mouse in the Snow" by Tomek Bogacki. (That's a Polish name, in case you're as curious as I was when I first saw it.)

The cat and the mouse are good friends, and they are both very curious. They love to go outside to play, but today everything looks different. It's all covered in white.

They think their green meadow is missing, and they decide to go and find it. They climbed to the top of the hill, but slid down after losing their footing. (Or perhaps, their pawing?)

In the meantime, the other cats and the other mice have come outside, to find that not only can they find the green meadow, but they can't find our heroes, either, so they begin to search.

Suddenly they see two scary white creatures in front of them - but no! It's just the cat and mouse covered in snow. Soon they all realize how much fun it is to slide down the hill, throw snowballs, and enjoy the season. They still miss their green meadow, but hope to play with the white stuff for a long, long time.

I enjoyed the illustrations in this book very much, done by the author.

The other book I chose is "This Place in the Snow," by Rebecca Bond. The first thing that struck me was the style of illustration, which really did lend a snow-swept look to the pages. Next I fell in love with the phraseology the author uses, telling us how the snow "lay like lace along the trees" and "hatted the house." No tired clichés here - we are getting truly unique, beautiful word pictures.

As the snow plow comes down the street, all the children wake up and dash into their warm clothes and eat breakfast, and run out to play on the big pile of snow left by the plow. They discussed what they should make out of the mound, and after much planning, they set to work, tunneling and digging, carefully proceeding, until they had created something like a castle out of snow, and "they were kings in a kingdom uncovered."

Later that night they go inside and get warm, remembering all they had done that day, and they go out to climb up one more time to look down at the town from the world they created.

With lovely illustrations, done by the author, and beautiful word use, I'm so glad I picked up this book.

("Cat and Mouse in the Snow" was published in 1999 by Douglas and McIntyre Ltd. "This Place in the Snow" was published in 2004 by Dutton Children's Books.)

Related Blogs:

Top Ten Picture Books for Preschoolers

Choosing a Read-Aloud Book

Night Tree

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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