WHOSE TRACKS IN THE SNOW?

Clues and descriptive language will spur children to become wintertime trackers.

Rhyming text that begins identically on every other spread—“Look! Look! / Tracks in the snow!”—describes the main characteristics of each track for readers and then asks them to guess who made it. “Tracks with three points, / Tracks like a wedge. / Who left the tracks by the snow-topped hedge?” Smudgy black tracks echo what children would see in nature, and a glimpse of a part of each animal gives a further clue. In this case, the vibrant tip of a blue, yellow, and orange tail. The page turn reveals the answer—a long-tailed pheasant—and a short paragraph of information. Though the rhyme stumbles once (claws with fours), the descriptions of tracks are stellar, giving kids similes and adjectives that they can then use for other things; the duck’s tracks are like kites, the red squirrel’s are like fingers and have claws, and the deer’s are heart-shaped and in two lines. Made with shredded and torn handmade paper and colored pencil, the spreads are filled with gorgeous textures, encouraging the eye to pore over not just the tracks, but the animals’ habitats as well. The snow isn’t flat white; it has shadings and color variations. And while the animals look realistically furry or feathered, the foliage is more stylistic: a pine with lace collars of snow, another with delicately feathered branches. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sure to lure children into the woods.