Chaucer's First Winter - Hardcover

Stephen Krensky is the author of more than a hundred books for children, including How Santa Got His Job (an ALA Notable Book) and Big Bad Wolves at School. He and his wife, Joan, live in Lexington, Massachusetts. You can visit him at StephenKrensky.com.

Henry Cole has written and illustrated more than fifty books for children, including Spot, the Cat; And Tango Makes Three; Oink?; and Little Bo in France. He is also the illustrator of With a Little Help from My Friends by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A former elementary school teacher, he now writes and paints full time.

PreSchool-Grade 1—This addition to the crowded field of winter, bear, and snow books lacks internal logic and breaks no new ground. When his friends tell Chaucer (a little bear) that they will miss him because he will sleep through the winter, and his parents tell him it will be good for him, Chaucer "[is] not convinced." Instead, he stays awake, experiencing snowball fights, icy ponds, icicles, and sliding down hills. When a big storm hits, he builds a snow fort to protect his friends and, predictably, when spring comes, he falls asleep. Oddly, his parents appear in the background of a number of illustrations, awake as well. Cole's cuddly cartoon animals, which sport scarves but no other clothing, are rendered in acrylic paint, colored pencil, and ink. The pictures are large and inviting, primarily done in full-bleed spreads, with spot art and single-page illustrations adding motion and interest. For a better book about a bear resisting hibernation, stick with Catherine Walters's When Will It Be Spring? (Dutton, 1998; o.p.). Leonid Gore's Danny's First Snow (S & S, 2007) and Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day (Viking, 1962) do a better job of exploring the joys of winter.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT END