Dream Snow

Dream Snow - Eric Carle

Published in 2000, this book came out just in time for my then 5 year-old son to enjoy it. He still asks where this book is at Christmas time. Dream Snow is a simple story about a farmer who greatly resembles both Santa Claus and Eric Carle himself. The simple repetitive text reinforces early counting skills while the plastic snow overlays create a captivating guessing game before revealing which animal is concealed behind the dream snow. The final gimmick of the book is a button to push to make a magical Christmas chime. In my opinion the art work in this book rivals anything else Carle has done, including the hungry caterpillar.

I liked Dream Snow by Eric Carle for three reasons. First, I liked the writing style. The writing style of this story was engaging and unique. It followed a pattern where the dialogue was written in a different font and style than the storyline describing the snow covering the animals. For example, “The farmer felt very cozy and a bit tired. “Heavens!” he said, yawning. ‘It’s almost Christmas and it hasn’t snowed yet.” With that he fell asleep. / Soon he dreamed of falling snowflakes. They gently covered him with a white blanket.” The differing fonts and styles between the two texts made for an engaging and unique read as it emphasized the snowfall that covered each animal. Second, I liked the illustrations. Each show more illustration was interactive and creative with vibrant colors and details. For example, “The snowflakes gently covered One with a white blanket.” The illustration following this text was made with watercolor adding an aesthetic appeal to the overall illustration itself. The illustration included a lot of vibrant colors and shading as well as detail to emphasize the horse’s structure. Not only that, but the author included a white blanket sheet before the illustration that when put down covered the horse with a ‘white snow blanket’ like described in the text. Lastly, I liked the plot. I thought the plot of this story was perfect for young readers and for the Christmas season. For example, “The farmer woke up from his dream, looked out of his window and saw snow. It was not dream snow. It was real snow.” The farmer had wished for snow before falling asleep and while dreaming that when he woke up, there was actual snow. I think in conjunction with the writing style and language used that this story would be perfect for young readers especially around the Christmas season. I think the big idea of the story is to never give up, even when you least expect something to happen. show less

I enjoyed Dream Snow. I like the consistent pattern that run throughout the book having each animal in the barn get covered in a blanket of snow. The farmer is worried because there is no snow on Christmas. He dreams that all the animals get covered in a blanket of snow. The overall idea is that your dreams can become reality. I enjoyed physically reading the book because it has flappable plastic covers that you can place over each animal to make it "covered" in snow. I also liked the illustrations done by Eric Carle which really bring the book to life.

A farmer dreams that he and his farm animals (named One, Two, Three, Four, and Five) are covered with a white blanket of snow. The snow is shown as a clear paged overlay. When he wakes up, he realizes it's been a dream. The magical mood of the rhythmic language is accentuated by silvery tones that come from a button we press at the end.

A farmer who appears to be santa clause has five animals. He named his animals one, two, three, four, and five. One day the farmer takes a nap and dream about blankets of snow. When he wakes up he realizes that it is Christmas. This book was very cute, it appeared to have 3D images. At the end of the story there was a page that showed his Christmas tree and it lite up. I think that a child can relate snow to Christmas or like children in Louisiana, we relate cold weather to Christmas.

This book is lovely to look at, but there's not much of a story here. It's about a farmer who has farm animals he calls "one," "two," "three," etc. It's near Christmas but it hasn't snowed on the farm yet. The farmer falls asleep and dreams of snow covering him and his farm animals. When he wakes up, he realizes that it has really snowed. He goes out to his barn and decorates a tree near his barn with Christmas ornaments and lights.

It's almost like Eric Carle had the artwork and then came up with some sort of lame narrative as an after thought. But the artwork is so lovely. When the farmer dreams of snow, there's an overlay that covers the animals with blankets of snow. At the end, when he decorates his tree there's a button to push in show more the back of the book that sets off a pleasing (non Christmasy) tinkly bit of music. When the farmer goes out after it's snowed he looks remarkably like Santa. show less

Great for grades k-2. Helps students have good character. Illustrations drawn using water colors. It’s Christmas Eve, and an old farmer settles down for nap, wondering how Christmas can come when it hasn't snowed yet. The farmer falls asleep and in his dream, he imagines snowflakes covering him and his animals. He awakens to discover it really has snowed.