White Snow Bright Snow

White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt
Illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
Published by HarperCollins
1947
Caldecott Medal 1948

     I know it's been a unseasonably warm winter here in the US, and I would normally not complain. In fact, for someone who grew up by the Caribbean Ocean, a warm winter is a great winter.  But then you read White Snow Bright Snow, and the gorgeous text by Tresselt makes you wish you could look out your window and see the world covered in a snow blanket.

Softly, gently in the secret night,
Down from the North came the quiet white.
Drifting, sifting, silent flight,
Softly, gently, in the secret night.

     The postman, the farmer, and the policeman felt the snow approaching and each prepared for it accordingly.  The postman put on his rubbers, the farmer grabbed his snow shovel and the policeman buttoned up his coat. Suddenly "the air was filled with soft powdery snowflakes, whispering quietly as they sifted down." The children tried to catch the snowflakes on their tongues. That night, "silently, the frost made pictures of ice ferns on the window panes."
     Tresselt's beautiful descriptions of the snowy day continue:

[In the morning]
Automobiles looked like big fat raisins buried in snowdrifts.
Houses crouched together, their windows peeking out from under great white eyebrows.

      As the days start getting warmer, and spring starts making his way, "fence post lost their dunce caps, the snowman's arms dropped off, and running water gurgled in gutters and rain pipes." "And the children watched for the first robin to tell them Spring had really come."
      White Snow Bright Snow is a book to savor one line at time.  Unfortunately, for me, the illustrations don't capture the beauty of the text.  In fact, in the printing I read, there were instances where the grays of the background made it difficult to read the text.  But take may word for it, there is enough beauty in Tresselt's words to transport you to a winter wonderland. Just beautiful!

Red Sled

Red Sled by Lita Judge
Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2011

     "Scrinch scrunch scrinch scrunch scrinch scrunch." A young boy makes his way through the snow back to a cabin in the woods, carrying his red sled.  He leaves the sled outside and as the night falls, a brown bear sees the sled and takes it for a ride.  While having a blast sledding, he's joined by a rabbit, a moose, raccoons, a possum, a porcupine and a mouse (that's my favorite illustration: the porcupine holding onto the moose's antlers and shouting "whoa").  The bear returns the sled at the end of the night, and in the morning the boy finds the bear's tracks next to the cabin.  As the snow begins to fall, he waits by the window, an eye on his red sled.
     Red Sled is practically wordless, except for some spots of onomatopoeias.  The joy of the book lies in its gorgeous illustrations.  There is a sense of adventure and fun reflected in the facial expressions of the animals.  Beautiful book to share during a snowy day.

Over and Under the Snow

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner
Art by Christopher Silas Neal
Published by Chronicle Books
2011

     On a winter day, as you venture deep into the woods to go cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, you can hear the crunch of the snow beneath your feet.  You might see a deer or a red squirrel and everything seems quiet and still. But "under the snow is a whole secret kingdom, where the smallest forest animals stay safe and warm."  There are little tunnels where tiny shrews hide from predators, where voles looks for food, and fat bullfrogs snooze. Under the snow a bear sleeps with its belly still full of berries and trouts from the fall, and a queen bee "drowses away December, all alone."
     It's hard to write about Over and Under the Snow without wanting to just quote the whole book. It's that good! Its beautiful language quietly flows from page to page, with a lyrical tone mirrored by the beautiful art created by Silas Neal. The images created by Messner's text place us inside the snowy forest, along for the ride with the father and daughter exploring the wonders of nature on a winter's day. And at the end, we can feel the slumber brought on by the trek, and "lean back with heavy eyes", enjoying a roasted marshmallow as the fire makes the "shadows dance in the flames."
     Over and Under the Snow will open readers' eyes to the world of wonders that nature offers every winter. I doubt I'll ever walk through the woods of the Hudson Valley and not think about all that's hidden under the snow.  At the end of the book, Messner has added a detailed explanation of the facts included in the book, with descriptions of each animal from the tale (as well as other resources to explore).
     What a quiet gem! Simply beautiful.

Singing Away the Dark

Singing Away the Dark by Caroline Woodward
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
2010

     When she was six, Caroline Woodward had to walk a mile in the dark and through the woods to get to her school bus stop.  From this memory, she has written a beautiful story.  On a windy winter's day, she leaves her house when it's still dark outside and heads downhill trekking through the snow.  As she gets farther away from her home, she's frightened by the "creaks and groans and hoots and howls " that creep into her ears.  But she has learned how to deal with those fears, she takes a breath and sings until the darkness disappears.  "I sing for sun, I sing for strength, I sing for warm toes, too."  She makes it to her school bus, ready to start the school day.  "When I was six and walked a mile and sang the dark away."
     Singing Away the Dark is a very special book, a lovely find.  The illustrations are beautiful and find a perfect balance of darks and lights to create the feeling of walking in the dark through the white snow. I love the detail of the little cardinal that shows up in a couple of pages adding a splash of red over a white landscape.  The text rhymes but never feels to be doing so intentionally, which is a great thing...it just has this lovely lyrical rhythm to it.  A great read aloud for the classroom and a perfect text to use as a sample of exploding the moment when writing a memoir.

Snowmen All Year

Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner
Illustrated by Mark Buehner
2011

     There is something heartbreaking about snowmen.  You spend hours working on making the perfect one, packing the snow just right, and decorating it. And then, a couple of days later, it has melted away; your labor of love has vanished.  What if the last one you built where magic and could stay around all year and never melt?  That's what the boy narrator wonders about in Snowmen All Year.
     Written in rhyme, the boy imagines all the things he would do and all the places he would visit with his magic snowman.  They could fly kites together, visit the zoo, enjoy the fireworks during the 4th of July, ride roller-coasters  play chess during rainy days, even dive and swim in the pool during on a sunny summer day and go trick or treating during Halloween.  As the boy sits on a snowy patch of his yard with his latest snowman creation behind him, he hopes "this snowman will be the one to stay with me all year!"  In the last page his dream seems to come true.
     Snowmen All Year is a companion book to the two previous Snowmen Books: Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas.  The illustrations are bright and colorful.  The illustrator offers a challenge on the title page: to find two ducks, a rabbit, a T-Rex, a cat, and at least one hidden snowmen in each painting. Looking for them in each page was a lot of fun.  A winter book for all season.