We are scheduled to get ~9in of snow in Chicago tonight! In honor of this wintry dump, I thought we’d share some more of our favorite winter themed books. This stack has books about kids enjoying snow- all for different reasons. I’m hoping this inspires my own kids to continue to get outside and enjoy this weather rather than wishing it away.
Simona Ciraolo’s If Winter Comes, Tell It I’m Not Here is hilarious and sweet- a kid who LOVES summer swimming- is not eager for winter to come, but finds that it has its own special activities and joys. The images are colorful and use interesting perspectives to show the kids and adults having fun. I personally love the images of trees- from summer to fall to deep snowy winter, they’re scene-stealers! My kids, though, both related to this kid, loving summer and finding ways to love winter, too.
The Snow Dancer by Addie Boswell and Mercé López shows the magic of untouched snow for all kinds of kids. Sofia awakens to a deep beautiful snow and heads over to a park to dance in the fresh, untouched snowfall. Soon other kids join her, including one kid who wants to dance in the snow as well. Soon they’re all throwing snowballs at each other! The illustrations are inky and fluid and show the magic of a fresh snowfall.
D. H. Figueredo and Enrique O. Sanchez’s When This World Was New is about a family who immigrates from a tropical island nation to a city in the U.S. They are nervous about what will happen in this new country. Told from the perspective of the kid in the family- Daniel shares his own apprehension about moving to a strange new place and what he can see of his parents’ nervousness as well. One thing he’s nervous about is the snow, which he has never seen before. He bundles up in the winter gear his Uncle Berto has given him and heads outside with his dad one morning. His dad tells him he always wanted to see snow, and suddenly Daniel feels a little bit of hope. I like reading this with my kids because we have never moved and likely won’t for a long time, so this story helps them to see what it might be like to see our city with fresh eyes. There’s also an opportunity to sneak in a conversation about how we might help those who seem nervous.
Jeron Ashford and Stacey Schuett’s Winter Candle is a special story about the tenents of a building who each realize they need a candle. It starts with Nana Clover in unit 3C who forgot the candles for Thanksgiving. Then a family needs a candle for their St. Lucia ceremony. When baby Jamila eats one of the Kwanzaa candles, Donte borrows it. The family who just moved in to 5B realizes their Papa who is traversing the city with a moving truck full of their things during a black out won’t be able to find the building. Nasreen borrows the candle from Donte and puts it in the window, and Papa finds them! Happily many people in the building stop by 5B to share supplies until the power comes back on. Cooperation, community, and sharing are all connections that can be made to this sweet story.
Cathy Camper and Kenard Pak’s Ten Ways to Hear Snow is sweet and simple. Lina helps her grandma, who lives in an assisted living facility, make warak enab, Lebanese stuffed grape leaves. The night before there’s a huge snowfall, so Lina bundles up and counts all the different sounds the snow makes as she walks from her home to her grandma’s home. Her grandma is losing her eyesight, so the sounds are something they can share. These are absolutely my favorite images of this stack- so detailed and clean. My kids love the onomatopoeia of the snow sounds in this sweet book.
A Big Bed for Little Snow is my 4 year old’s favorite of this stack. It tells the story of Little Snow, whose Mommy gives him a big fluffy feather bed at the beginning of winter. Whenever Mommy isn’t hear, Little Snow jumps on it even though Mommy warned not to- this sweet defiance is a big reason my kid likes it so much! A tiny hole appears in the bed cover, so Little Snow’s jumps yield a burst of feathers. My kids both love to see the page that shows the feathers as snow and are still debating whether Little Snow will be doing a few BIG jumps or lots of small jumps to bring our snowfall tonight.
Cute for younger kids with engaging rhymes, Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Lee shows a kid who sees footprints in the snow outside their window. They go to investigate and see some winter sights and animals along the way. Cutely, they follow the tracks until they are lead back to their own home when they realize the tracks are their own from the previous day. The soft images create the feeling that a light snow is falling as you read.
Happy Winter to you all! We hope you are staying cozy and also enjoying some outdoor activities this week.
As always, if you click the links in the post they’ll take you to my Bookshop page where you can purchase any of these books that are available. Thanks in advance for supporting my shop!