On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring

by Buffy Silverman

Overview

Snowmen droop / Cardinals swoop, Rabbits bounce / Foxes pounce

In the early days of spring when the snow begins to melt, plants and animals stir to life. High-impact photos and simple, rhyming text make for an engaging read-aloud while back matter offers more detail about each of the creatures featured in this celebration of spring's arrival.

"Clever, thoughtful, and engaging."—starred, Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541578135
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/04/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,102,067
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Buffy Silverman is the author of more than 90 nonfiction books for children, featuring topics from alligators to video games. Look for her nature-inspired poetry in anthologies and children's magazines, and visit her at www.buffysilverman.com.

Editorial Reviews

"[C]lever, thoughtful, and engaging."—starred, Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

02/01/2020

PreS-Gr 3—Spring arrives with melting snow, and plants and animals begin to come to life in a series of detailed photographs. Silverman's readable verse covers a wide array of familiar animals in their natural environments. Brisk rhymes and a musical refrain make this a lively nonfiction read-aloud. For example, in a two-page spread, Silverman writes, "On a plink-plonking, marsh-mucking, duck-dabbling day…" The accompanying photos show a raindrop making ripples in a puddle, a snowy marshland in the process of unthawing, and two ducks sitting on top of an unidentified body of water. A section in the back matter covers scientific explanations for each animal or an event mentioned in the text. The glossary is extensive, and the list of further reading features several similar books, all published within the last five years. VERDICT A welcome addition to school libraries. Perfect for answering nature-related questions or crafting lesson plans.—Savannah Kitchens, Parnell Memorial Library, Montevallo, AL

School Library Journal

★ 2019-10-13
Full-color photography and sparse, rhyming verse offer a look at early spring in a temperate climate.

Text, art, and layout are clever, thoughtful, and engaging. One double-page spread gives the beginning of a sentence that will have several different endings over the pages that follow; the sequence is repeated four times. The opening pages start with "On a drip-droppy, / slip-sloppy, / snow-melting day…." Each of those three descriptions is accompanied by a clear and beautiful stock photograph; contrasting black or white text over the photographs is large and legible. The pages that follow use rhyming couplets with their own photographs to end that preceding phrase: "Squirrels cuddle. / Snakes huddle. / Clouds break. / Salamanders wake." Plants, animals, and human beings are all included in the signs of spring; children will relate strongly to soaked mittens, boots in puddles, melting snowmen, and swinging on a tire swing. A particularly stunning photograph shows a chickadee, wings whirring, sipping water from a dripping icicle. Explanations of this and all the early spring phenomena depicted are offered at the back of the book, extending the age level from preschool to early primary grades. The overall theme, as well as the creative use of noun-verb combinations to form new adjectives, also lends itself to introducing children to the e.e. cummings poem that begins "in Just-spring." One photograph shows two humans, both presenting as white.

Crocus-poking, mud-luscious enjoyment. (glossary, further reading) (Informational picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews