In the Snow

PreS-K. After a child scatters seeds near his home on a winter day, one bird after another arrives to eat the offering. Squirrels, rabbits, and a field mouse join the feast during the day, but the possum doesn't appear until after dark. The next morning, amid the many footprints in the snow, the child reappears with more seeds for the animals. The very short verses of the rhyming text, sometimes limited to one word per page, provide young children with a guide to what is happening in the illustrations. In fact, many children will get their first introduction to identifying individual species such as "chickadee, / sparrow, / cardinal, / crow" in the scenes where, one by one, the birds fly down to feed. Tafuri works her visual magic, so finely attuned to the sensibilities of young children while challenging them to observe the natural world through the inclusion of animal footprints as a clue to identification. A worthwhile addition to library story hours as well as one-on-one reading sessions at home. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved