We've doubled down on the wintry weather - after a delightful and decently warm Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, we woke up this morning to 19 degrees! Brrrr!
Snow
Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 9780152053031
Stringer's beautiful gentle paintings make this sweet lyrical ode to snow nearly transcendent.
Rylant takes us through sweet vignettes of modern children and their (diverse) families as they encounter different types of snow. The end of the book plunges swiftly into poetic stillness, which was aaaaalmost too much for the crop of littles today, but we managed it. Despite the down-tempo ending, the entire book is heartwarming and beautiful and evocative.
Red Sled
Patricia Thomas, illustrated by Chris L. Demarest
ISBN: 9781590785591
Demarest's chunky lively scenes and bright happy expressions really carry the minimalist poetry.
Thomas uses the form of a chiasmus (a sort of mirrored, repetitive, poem - most likely used to aid memorization of epics) to present the tale of a father and son going on a night-time sledding run. The text is therefore very short (even the words used are crisp and simple), so Demarest creates illustrations with punch and movement to carry the momentum of the story through the page turns. The pairing is suprisingly powerful, making this an excellent middle book - short and punchy and fun.
Big Snow
Jonathan Bean
ISBN: 9780374306960
David is very excited about the incoming snow-storm, and "helps" his mother around the house.
I enjoy the realism of the energetic kid "helping" mother by starting various chores and getting distracted and running off halfway through (leaving mom to pick up the mess, of course) but I think that the inclusion of the dream sequence involving a snowstorm mess in the house makes for an intense and not quite congruent interlude especially since it comes so close before the comparatively anticlimactic and unmemorable actual ending. Despite that, it's a cute read, and a great snow day story.
No comments:
Post a Comment