All about what kids and grownups do when it snows, then turns to spring. The illustrations are soothing and interesting. I love this book! ( )

Caldecott Award winner,picturebook about the coming and going of winter.I liked the story of what different people do during winter weather. The dark gray backgroundgives the sence of winter. Lesson on the changeing seasons. ( )

White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin, tells the story of the postman, a farmer, a policeman, and the children over the course of a winter using paintings and select colors. I liked the story and I enjoyed the painted illustrations, but I was disappointed in some respects. First, the title comes from a nice poem on a page that isn’t illustrated. I also found White Snow, Bright Snow to be ugly in layout, with bold, blocky letters that really detracted from the illustrations and the story. Finally, White Snow, Bright Snow didn’t have enough illustrations; there was too much heavy text for each illustration. Simply changing the font face could have improved it and made it feel less text heavy. Maybe it’s been reissued with a different font face (the copy I read was the original 1947 publication). It’s quite sad that the format makes this otherwise interesting, lovely illustrated book so unattractive!

Genre: Realistic fiction/ Poetry
Age Appropriateness:
Review: This picture book was based off of a poem that was included in the beginning of the book before the story starts. The story deals with a snow storm and the change between winter and spring, something that every child gets to experience annually for themselves.

Media: Mixed media ( )

This classic book published in 1947 wraps me in a soft fuzzy blanket of nostalgia and makes me crave the good ol' days of clean white snow and sledding, rubber boots and all the neighborhood children playing together in the huge drifts. It takes me back to being snowed-in, warm fire in the fireplace, hot cocoa and the Postman whose name I knew bringing armloads of Christmas cards. The world depicted in this book does not include the sound of a snow-blower or a snow-mobile. It does not have Doppler radar to let me know it's going to snow. In this book we rely upon the ache in a woman's big toe and the fact that a farmer says it smells like snow. The rabbits know it and the kids search the grey sky waiting for the first snowflakes. This book takes us from those first feathery flakes through a really deep snowfall. We're there as the townspeople shovel themselves out. We're there as the grown-ups contend with the winter snow and the children revel in it. Eventually Spring comes and is greeted with as much gladness as the first snowflakes. The simple four color watercolor illustrations are just wonderful and made me yearn for the days when we didn't hurry from climate controlled houses to climate controlled cars to shopping malls with trees and fountains, for the days when we were on speaking terms with the weather. The writing in this book is so lyrical and gentle that it makes a perfect bedtime story and it is sure to warm the heart of the adult who's doing the reading. For example, "Then without a sound, just when everybody was asleep, the snow stopped, and bright stars filled the night. In the morning a clear blue sky was overhead and blue shadows hid in all the corners." ( )