Baby, it's cold outside: books to celebrate winter's chill

REVIEWS BY DEBORAH HOPKINSON

Wintertime is here. The holidays are over, and the best way to kick off the New Year just might be snuggling in a cozy chair to read, especially with a favorite young reader on your lap.

For veterans of winter weather, sometimes it's more fun to read about snow than shovel or drive through it. But the endearing bunny on the cover of Bernette Ford's new book, First Snow, illustrated by Sebastien Braun, is a reminder that nothing is so magical to children as that first snowfall of the year.

Bunny and his siblings are fast asleep in the warm lair one night when Bunny pokes up his small nose and sniffs the cold night air. It's the first snow! The small rabbits venture out to the meadow, where hungry chipmunks scurry to gather pine cones, and children make a fat, white snowman. The bunnies "race across the meadow, leaving paw prints as they go. Hopping, stumbling, rolling, tumbling, playing in the cold first snow." And though the children may head back home for hot cocoa in front of the fire, they leave a present behind for the bunnies to enjoy. A spare, lyrical text and child-friendly illustrations make this a perfect bedtime story for a winter night.


Speaking of winter nights, no creature is better prepared for the cold than the polar bear. Did you know, for instance, that polar bears stay warm in temperatures of 40 degrees below zero? That's just one of the astonishing facts in Ice Bear: In the Steps of the Polar Bear, written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Gary Blythe. Written in vivid, poetic language interspersed with fascinating facts about these amazing creatures, Ice Bear is a wonderful introduction to polar bears and their habitat. Blythe's evocative oil and pencil illustrations show the bears both as fierce seal hunters and devoted mothers. "Mother Polar Bear, in her winter snow den, tends her newborn cubs. She lifts their tiny bodies in her great paws and suckles them." The book includes a short author's note with information about how global warming may affect polar bears, as well as an index.


Polar bears may be able to withstand sub-zero temperatures, but that doesn't mean they don't enjoy a nice cup of cocoa now and then. In discussing how her new book, Cold Paws, Warm Heart, came about, London artist Madeleine Floyd says, "A couple of years ago, I produced an oil painting of a large polar bear being offered a cup of hot chocolate. I was thinking about random acts of kindness and how a hot drink might be exactly what a polar bear might enjoy rather than his usual icy fish for lunch."

Floyd's story takes place far away in the land of snow and ice. Cold Paws, a lonely polar bear, roams with only his silver flute for company. Then he meets a young girl named Hannah from a nearby village, who is attracted by his beautiful music. Hannah's gifts of hot chocolate and friendship are just the things to warm the polar bear's heart. Young children will be sure to enjoy this simple tale of love and friendship.


In A Summertime Song, renowned children's book artist Irene Haas created a sumptuous picture book celebrating all the beauty and fullness of summer. Her newest book, Bess and Bella, takes place on a cold winter afternoon, when Bess and her doll are having a tea party with melted snow and cookie crumbs. Suddenly a little bird called Bella tumbles through the clouds and plops into the powdery snow, along with several tiny suitcases. As it turns out, Bella's suitcases contain the makings of a wonderful feast, including a bowl of buttery biscuits (with jam of course) and a teapot of fragrant, steaming tea. From there, the afternoon unfolds with one surprising event after another. With its warm, magical illustrations and classic, old-fashioned feel, Bess and Bella is destined to be around for many winter days to come.


Deborah Hopkinson's new picture book, Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, will be published in February.

© 2005 ProMotion, inc.
www@bookpage.com