Recess at 20 Below

***NO SPOILERS***

Do non-Alaskans ever give much thought to what it’s like for Alaskan children during winter recess? In just a few pages, this book offers a surprisingly interesting peek--for children and adults alike. Featuring photos of Alaskan children on their snowy playground, it brings their unique experience to cheery life. Recess in winter is clearly much more fun in Alaska than in any other state.

I like how this book puts into perspective how vastly different Alaska is from the rest of the U.S. Heavy snow rarely closes their schools, and if Alaskan children don’t brave the cold each day, they’ll almost never get to go outside for recess.

As someone who didn’t experience a recess anything close to this, I was fascinated show more by this book and read it more than once. The large, vivid photographs also complement the text beautifully while providing a nice bit of armchair travel. This is one of the better children’s books out there.

Age-range: This book isn’t too text-heavy and probably will interest children starting at age 5. show less

I’d wanted to read this but my library didn’t have it. A friend’s mention of it today reminded me of it and I finally checked Open Library and they did have it. Read on Open Library.

Highly recommended for young school children and others who enjoy seeing how other children live. For children not used to snow all winter or extreme cold and especially if they’re not used to darkness 21 hours a day, and light 21 hours a day in the summer, this is an eye opener. Looking at all the photos and listening to the kids’ words is captivating.

This account is given by real children and there are photos of them doing what they describe: getting in and out of heavy winter clothing, playing in various ways at recess, which they say they show more always have at noon because that’s when the sun is the highest in the sky, though it’s still not very light. These kids go to school and come home from school in the dark in the winter time. They go out to recess if the temperature doesn’t fall below 20 below zero. If it does get colder, they stay in, and one example is shown where they had to stay inside one day due to wildlife on the premises.

I would have even more time with the darkness than I would with the snow or the cold. These children seem to take it in stride.

This is a fascinating peek into how children live. The author teaches elementary physical education in Delta Junction Alaska and I’m assuming these are some of her students. show less

Put on your coat, hat and gloves and snow pants before you step outside for Cindy Lou Aillaud’s Recess at 20 Below. This book offers you an opportunity to attend recess near the Arctic Circle in Alaska.
This book describes from a child’s perspective the feeling one has going outside to play on a very cold day. The child sees “the snow on the ground sparkles like diamonds… (and hears the snow) sound like…wading through a bag of potato chips.”
Geared for ages 4-8 (preschool to 2nd or 3rd grade), this book includes photos of children in this age range. It starts with the children dressing to go out to recess putting on many layers of clothing. The children are smiling and sledding and enjoying recess in an environment that is show more very comfortable and familiar to them. One photo takes you to the top of a slide ready to experience “sliding down a glacier.” Humor is added in the story as it talks about the children looking like “a jar of grape jelly” or a “pickle” as they dress for the outdoors. It also shows a child lying on top of a swing that shows the snow at a depth too deep to use the swing. Some of the discomforts of the environment are expressed in pictures of frozen eyelashes and talk about “breathing hard” and “moisture on their faces freezing their eyelids shut.”
This book would be excellent to use in the classroom as it shows children at school and helps the student see that things are different in other areas of the country. It talks about the time of year where the “sun rises and sets in just three hours” and the children “come to school and go home in the pitch-black dark.” This would give the teacher an opportunity especially with older students to talk about how the earth is tilted and how this affects the seasons.
The content of this book is put together by a teacher that teaches in a school in Alaska, therefore the information in this book is accurate in describing the experiences the students are having on a cold Alaskan day. Cindy Lou Aillaud first taught school “in Arctic Village which is north of the Arctic Circle” she later moved to Delta Junction, Alaska where she has lived since 1979. She is a current teacher of physical education and shares her passion for teaching and photography in her book Recess at 20 Below. show less