CAN'T WE SHARE?

This sharing lesson is about as didactic as they come.

Little Snowman Stan lives with his friends (oddly, there are no family relationships) in Freezeland, where it is always cold and snowy. While the snowmen all look a little different, each wears a hat of some sort. That is, until Dmitri arrives without one—a blizzard blew his hat away: “Sad and without my hat, I kept going. Until I arrived here.” Impetuously, the generous and bighearted Stan hands over his own blue plaid hat so Dmitri can wear it for a few days. But Dmitri has no intention of giving it back. The snowmen meet and discuss solutions to the problem, but all focus on either punishing Dmitri or forcing either Dmitri or Stan to live hatless. But Stan comes up with a sharing solution acceptable to all: They will rotate the hats so that no one goes more than one day bareheaded. The watercolor snowmen convey emotion through the curve of their mouths and the roundness of their eyes. It’s a cute-enough, though plodding, story with sweet illustrations, but readers are practically hit over the head with the sharing message. Who knows, though—didactic sometimes proves to be pretty popular; look at Rainbow Fish.

Still, in this day and age of lice, parents may wish the snowmen shared something other than hats.