A snowy ode that will take your breath away.
Poetically personified snow divulges the stealthy ways it supports and loves nature.
Hall opens by sharing that Lewis Carroll once pondered whether “‘snow loves the trees and fields…’ More than 150 years later, this is my answer.” And answer she does, with snow dramatically extolling the majesty of animals like the “regal stag” and “sly red fox” who revel in the chill. A consistent meter drives the verse narrative while internal rhymes add zip. Facts are sprinkled throughout, explaining how snow provides shelter and camouflage and serves as a spring water source. Hall switches gears, describing a summer spent longing for winter; she then wraps up cyclically by welcoming back first flakes. Because the language is so grand, readers might benefit from perusing the straightforward backmatter, which gives concrete examples of how snow can be a “home” or “blanket.” Earthy, expansive and astonishing, Martin’s winterscapes stun. His watercolors, pencil drawings, and digital collages have gravitas, from a realistically feathery snowy owl staring out unflinchingly to a fearsome father wolf carrying food for his offspring. Elegantly flowy trees and branches and dynamically perched, slightly hazy animals contrast gorgeously with the snow-speckled indigo skies. Even the snow is eye-catching. Rich with mottled layers of lustrous color, it’s an ideal base for the humming forest.
A snowy ode that will take your breath away. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904312
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
