Josette Frank (1893–1989)

Snow Toward Evening: A Year in a River Valley is a beautiful picture book and collection of poetry. The 13 poems, written by 13 different poets, were selected by childhood educator, Josette Frank. American Painter, Thomas Locker, then used the poems as inspiration and created 13 seasonal paintings to accompany the poems. There is one poem and one painting for each month, plus the bonus of another painting and poem at the end of the book entitled, "A New Year." Locker's paintings are show more beautifully-realistic and help to bring the poems to life. This is a book for all ages. Children will enjoy looking for connections to the poems in the paintings. Books organized by months of the year are often very handy in the classroom and will give you and your students something to look forward to each month and each turning season. If you enjoy the paintings in this book, you can find many other books for children that Locker wrote and illustrated. show less

Excellent rhyme and meter in almost all of the poems, and the most charming illustrations!

This book is great for young children entering a primary level. It is filled with many poems about many things a young child may encounter in life and it is also full of amazing illustrations for young children to observe. I would introduce this book to my classroom as a read-aloud for younger children, and I would showcase the illustrations while I read so that they understand the meaning of the words.

Beautiful book for young children. If you can find a copy, buy it! It should be brought back into print.