SNOW DAY

Fain's first book for children, demure and even stilted in text and art, attempts to teach a lesson about self-expression. Clever Maggie Murphy usually keeps a close watch on her stern teacher, Sister Agatha Ann, but one day she is caught drawing—a drawing that has spilled onto her desktop. For defacing school property, Maggie has special homework: She has to write a poem overnight and present it the next day in school. Maggie struggles that night and fails; the next day there is no reprieve—a school holiday because of heavy snowfall—because Sister Agatha Ann is sledding at School Hill. Maggie's teacher not only helps her win a sled race, but proves to Maggie that pictures can be drawn in words. She improvises a poem on the spot, an exercise that helps her student successfully complete her assignment. A car, the children's clothing, and Sister Agatha Ann's full-length habit help place the story, revealed as 1961 on the last page, but the plot seems convoluted for the simple resolution, and despite a text that implies that the siblings are various ages, Maggie's brothers and sisters look the same age as she is. (Picture book. 5-8)