Customer Reviews

The Snowflake : A Water Cycle Story

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Neil Waldman's The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story is a simple yet elegantly presented picture book showing the cycle of water, from earth to cloud and back again, as well as how this process continues month by month as the year progresses. Waldman's beautiful pastel illustrations add a gentle touch to this enriching, informative, and entertaining work which is especially recommended for young readers ages 6 through 8.

The complex topic of hydrology is simplified here so that children (and adults) can easily understand it. In calendar style, we follow the path of one particular snowflake falling on a mountain. Over the course of twelve months, it becomes a droplet of water that melts into a stream, passes through an agricultural irrigation system, lifts up into a summer fog, drops into a reservoir, flows through city water pipes, drifts in the ocean, rises into a cloud and once again becomes a snowflake falling on a mountain. We come full circle and can start the story all over again from the beginning of the book.

Neil Waldman's paintings brightly convey the realistic journey and are colorful, clean and beautiful to boot. "The Snowflake" is a nice addition to elementary school and nature center shelves, as well as a good read-aloud storytime selection that will prove thought-provoking to the young.

I really liked the concept of following a snowflake (turned droplet) around the water cycle. However - I found the reading a bit dry. The story is presented as a month by month snippet , i.e. January, then February, and so forth. I felt like the story could have been spruced up a bit - maybe by giving the snowflake a bit more of a "persona" to make it fun for young readers. I also thought it could have gone into more of an explanation about what was happening, rather than just saying "it evaporated." I don't think my kids will be requesting to hear this one again and again. Incidentally, I am a very science-y person and it would not have taken much to interest me about the water cycle... so in sum: Nice concept. Boring reading.