28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Winter Wonderland from a Bygone Era, November 15, 2002
This review is from: White Snow, Bright Snow (Hardcover)
This classic book published in 1947 wraps me in a soft fuzzy blanket of nostalgia and makes me crave the good ol' days of clean white snow and sledding, rubber boots and all the neighborhood children playing together in the huge drifts. It takes me back to being snowed-in, warm fire in the fireplace, hot cocoa and the Postman whose name I knew bringing armloads of Christmas cards. The world depicted in this book does not include the sound of a snow-blower or a snow-mobile. It does not have Doppler radar to let me know it's going to snow. In this book we rely upon the ache in a woman's big toe and the fact that a farmer says it smells like snow. The rabbits know it and the kids search the grey sky waiting for the first snowflakes. This book takes us from those first feathery flakes through a really deep snowfall. We're there as the townspeople shovel themselves out. We're there as the grown-ups contend with the winter snow and the children revel in it. Eventually Spring comes and is greeted with as much gladness as the first snowflakes. The simple four color watercolor illustrations are just wonderful and made me yearn for the days when we didn't hurry from climate controlled houses to climate controlled cars to shopping malls with trees and fountains, for the days when we were on speaking terms with the weather. The writing in this book is so lyrical and gentle that it makes a perfect bedtime story and it is sure to warm the heart of the adult who's doing the reading. For example, "Then without a sound, just when everybody was asleep, the snow stopped, and bright stars filled the night. In the morning a clear blue sky was overhead and blue shadows hid in all the corners." Share this one.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The first children's book to mention mustard plaster, October 24, 2004
This review is from: White Snow, Bright Snow (Hardcover)
I think I shall begin this review by saying something sacrilegious. It'll capture your attention and allow me to get something off my chest. I've noticed that if you tell children's literature professionals that you think it would be a good idea to take old picture books and liven them up with brand new illustrations by contemporary illustrators, they look at you like you've just suggested burning the collected works of Dr. Seuss. Which is to say, they look at you like you're insane. This isn't to say this practice isn't done from time to time. For example, illustrator David McPhail (for reasons I don't even want to contemplate) thought it might be a good idea to reillustrate Beatrix Potter's, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". Usually, I think re-illustrating old classics is a bad idea. By and large, it's a dangerous practice that should be avoided. Then I read "White Snow, Bright Snow". This is a Caldecott winning book that is a fabulous read. I've rarely read a picture book that so beautifully captures the feeling you get when the world is first blanketed in a thick covering of fluffy white snow. Author Alvin Tresselt's words are some of the most beautiful you'll read, which makes it that much more of a pity that the illustrator on this book was Roger Duvoisin. I know many of you remember this book from your youth and I know many more would beat me with sticks for suggesting anything at all be changed about this wonderful tale. But honestly, let's look at it again in a clear light. I can't help but think new illustrations would suit this puppy perfectly.
In this story, author Tresselt gives us several different impressions and reactions to the coming of wintertide. As the sky looms dark and heavy with unfallen snow, a postman, a farmer, and a policeman and his wife all decide in their own separate ways that flakes are imminent. Heck, even the rabbits and the children are waiting for it to happen. "Then, just when no one was looking, it came". Snow means new boots for the postman and extra shoveling for the farmer. Snow means the policeman gets to soak his feet in hot water as his wife rubs mustard plaster into his chest (don't ask). Snow means the children can make snowmen, snow houses, and snow forts before throwing snowball fights. In time though, the snow drifts away and spring is coming again. The last image of the book is of the children watching the first robin who tells them that spring has really come.
Unlike most picture books written today (I hesitate to say all, but that's my impression), this book contains long wordy passages on one page facing a single illustration on the other. This would be tiresome if the passages weren't so well written. Just listen to this: "In the morning a clear blue sky was overhead and blue shadows hid in all the corners. Automobiles looked like big fat raisins buried in snowdrifts. Houses crouched together, their windows peeking out from under great white eyebrows". Even if you've never seen the effect of snow on a landscape, these lines are evocative enough to make you wish you had. Moreover, they summarize perfectly what the world looks like on a clear sunny morning after a heavy snow. So hats off to Tresselt. Hats off indeed. I only wish illustrator Roger Duvoisin could fill me with half as much awe and wonder. Duvoisin's illustrations are, in and of themselves, fine. I mean, there's nothing particularly bad about them. I liked the distinctly 1940s images (the policeman's wife wears some pretty hip dresses). I liked the image of the policeman twirling his baton. But these pictures suffer from a kind of messy skewed perspective. In context, they work. Yet after reading Tresselt's lovely passages, you find yourself yearning for lovely illustrations. Illustrations that are not forthcoming. I'm not asking for anything spectacular, but the green, yellow, orange, red-orange, yellow-green, and grey pictures (I've just listed the entire color scheme) are sometimes lovely and sometimes dull as dishwater.
So, as I said before, I make the sacrilegious suggestion that we ask another illustrator to try his or her hand on this book. Duvoisin's pictures are fine in and of themselves and I've little doubt that there are adults out there who read this book as children and would bludgeon me with stones for such an idea. Still, the words are so lovely, you can't help but want to pair them with pretty pictures. For an especially good storytime, consider pairing this book with the far more contemporary but no less adept "Snow Music" by Lynne Rae Perkins. Together, the two books capture every essence of what it means to live in a world of snowy whiteness. A great companion to the winter season.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun book for young children and their parents, June 18, 2000
This book won the Caldecott Medal in 1948. It is based on a poem the author wrote which came to him as he was walking a street in New York City, on a snowy winter night. The book takes place in the suburbs in 1948. It focuses on the anticipation of the snowfall, the actual snowfall, the children playing and loving the snow and then the beginning of spring. In this age of FEdEX and high technology, it is fun to see a postman and policeman walking their route. The story really seems like a fairy tale. It is absolutely charming. It has endured since 1948. Your children will enjoy it, and so will you.
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