IF SNOWFLAKES TASTED LIKE FRUITCAKE

An imaginative look at snowflakes and what we might do with them if they tasted of anything but winter.

“If snowflakes tasted like chestnuts… / I would roast them by the fire. // If snowflakes tasted like gingerbread… / I would make a cookie choir.” From sugar-plum snowflakes dancing in the narrator’s head and cocoa snowflakes warming the toes to apple flakes baked in a pie and chicken-soup ones slurped up, Previn explores different tastes and textures for this wintertime staple. But not all her comparisons make sense, and at least one is distressingly ignorant: marshmallow snowflakes that are lighter than feathers and whipped-cream flakes that tickle the nose aren’t a whole lot different than real snowflakes, and “If snowflakes tasted like honey… / then we wouldn’t need the bees” overlooks the important role bees play in pollination. The creative digital artwork is both generally retro-feeling and actively reminiscent of A Snowy Day. The backgrounds are either tone-on-tone snowflakes or woodgrain, and the child has a medium-brown skin tone and black hair and wears a bright red suit, hat, and scarf combo that pops off the pages.

Like the fruitcake-flavored flakes, pass on this one.