From School Library Journal
PreSchool-In this joyous winter song, a mother lovingly shares a snowfall with her baby. The warm earthy shades of brown and the softly contoured shapes of her sturdy northern home are echoed in the snow-covered rocks, providing a comforting physical setting for the poetic text. "It's a dark dark, cold cold night," and Mama bundles up herself and Baby, goes out into the sparkling night, and lovingly implores the child to smell and hear and taste and touch the snow. She builds a snow troll and takes the infant riding on a sled and an ice sculpture of a bear. Baby laughs, gets a red nose, and then is tucked back into his cradle while Mama enjoys a hot drink in front of the fire. The gouache paintings are beautifully executed, evoking a sublime winter wonderland. This is a lovely, satisfying story to share at bedtime. Pair it with Uri Shulevitz's Snow (Farrar, 1998).
Susan Pine, New York Public LibraryCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
PreS. "It's a dark dark, cold cold night," and in a small, warm hut on a remote rugged hill, a mother rocks her baby. Then she opens the door and sees the snow. Wrapping her baby in furs, the mother carries her child out into the night and together they exult in the wintry sensations: "Baby, see the snow . . . smell the snow . . . hear the snow!" After sculpting a snow troll and sledding, the two return exuberant yet sleepy to their cozy fireside. Like Uri Shulevitz's Caldecott Honor Book,
Snow (1998), Dunrea's latest celebrates the shock, joy, and power of snow with poetic, minimal words and richly imagined watercolors. More than the sense of the words, the text's rolling rhythms and soft, hypnotic sounds will attract children, but they'll easily follow the story in the beautiful paintings of the snug home--part Laplander, part medieval--and the wild, dark forest. Most of all, children will feel the delight and awe of watching snow transform everything.
Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
