Customer Reviews

City of Snow: The Great Blizzard of 1888

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How did the text for this book ever make it past the editors? It's a shame, because the pictures are very well done. A straightforward prose version would have been much better than the strangely worded "poetry".

We received this book as a gift, and our son, now almost 7, has enjoyed hearing us read this to him, on and off, for a couple of years now. I'm a former English teacher, and while this book's poetry won't be confused with the works of Wallace Stevens or Robert Frost, it is easily a cut above the standard kiddie fare. In addition to traditional end-rhymes, the author also uses many different rhyming devices - notably consonance, assonance, and alliteration - to tell the story of one girl's experience during the Great Blizzard of 1888. This has lead to some good questions about how people lived in 1888, the importance of weather, and the things people used to do for fun. This is very ambitious for a children's book, and frankly, I find it a welcome break from the Dr. Suess "one fish, two fish" style that everyone else seems to favor. Nice illustrations, too. If you are tired of the other children's titles that constantly make the rounds, give this story a try.