Carl R. Sams

I really liked this book, mainly because of how the author created suspense or curiosity with the title. Once I read the title, I began thinking that there may be a scary element to the story, which made me want to read on and find out. During reading, I started to realize that my prediction was changing. For example, once the author revealed that the snowman was the "stranger", there was almost a silly aspect introduced, rather than a scary aspect. This technique really draws readers in, so show more I thought that was interesting. The main idea of this book is centered around trust/curiosity for unknown things. show less

At the beginning of this book I was a little bored but ended up loving it due to the twist ending. I thought that the illustrations were very interesting. The use of photography made the story come alive and seem believable (even thought it was fantasy). The use of literary techniques in the writing also made the story come alive. The onomatopoeia (like who-hoo) and play on sounds (like chickadee-dee-dee) gave life to the characters and story. The message of the story was that it's all about show more perspective. Something that we recognize as commonplace, like a snowman in a snowy field, could seem like an intruder with someone/thing in another culture. show less

In my opinion this picture book is wonderful because of the real life pictures and the different perspective of the stranger in the woods. The story is about the woodland animals after a snowfall finding a stranger in the woods. The animals become curious and investigate the new member. Eventually the reader finds out the stranger is a snowman that feeds the animals in the woods with his carroty nose and the left over seeds on the ground. At the end the children who created the snowman vow show more to continue to come back and watch the animals investigate the snowman after each snowfall. The fact that the book is from the perspective of the animals in the language used and the pictures are from the perspective of the children watching them allows the reader to feel like he or she is there as well. The big idea of this picture book is to help readers see what animals think of new things in their homes. show less

I did and did not like this book for a few different reasons. I did like the story line and how the everything was described. For example, "the munching muskrat" was very descriptive and helps you picture the animals better. And I really liked how it was actual real life pictures instead of illustrations. It gave a much more real factor to the book. But I did not like the set up of the story. I found it very boring and strange that the animals would act the way that they did. Such as eating show more the food off of the stranger. And the fact that they didn't even hear the children that were clearly near by. Wouldn't an animals senses be on guard if there is a stranger in the woods and you have no idea how the stranger got there? I didn't think the characters were very believable. show less