The First Day of Winter

by Denise Fleming, Denise Fleming (Illustrator)

Overview

From renown picture book author Denise Fleming, a cozy, cumulative book to warm a cold winter day

Alive with swirling snow and lots of outdoor fun, the first ten days of winter bring special gifts for a special friend. This cumulative tale will have children chanting along as they discover all the trimmings needed for the most perfect snowman ever!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429939652
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	73 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Denise Fleming has written and illustrated many children's books, including In the Tall, Tall Grass, Shout! Shout It Out!, and Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy. She won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. Denise published her first painting in the third grade, when she started taking classes at the Toledo Museum of Art and one of her paintings was chosen to be the cover of a teacher's magazine. She now works primarily with paper, by pouring colored paper pulp through hand-cut stencils. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Denise Fleming won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. She is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen picture books, including Buster. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

Fleming creatively employs the structure of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to create a cumulative tale about the decorations for a snowman, beginning with the addition of a "red cap with a gold snap" on the first day of winter. On each subsequent day, the African-American narrator's best friend provides something else to add to the snowman's outfit: "2 bright blue mittens, 3 striped scarves," and much more, right on down to "10 salty peanuts" for the snowman's toes. Fleming uses her signature collage technique against pale gray backgrounds dotted with white snowflakes, with different animals on each page helping to add the details to the snowman. The perspectives vary until the last, wordless spread, which shows the completed snowman in a horizontal orientation that provides a satisfying conclusion. Teachers and librarians will add this volume to story times with winter or snow themes, and the clever new words to a favorite old tune might become a new winter favorite in music classrooms. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

Fleming's pulp paintings are a celebration of shape, color, and texture.” —The Horn Book

“Fleming brings a cheerful childlike tone to her text, along with abundant touches of humor and tenderness. ” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

From the Publisher