Snow: A Winter and Holiday Book for Kids

by Cynthia Rylant, Lauren Stringer (Illustrator)

Overview

* "Few have the grace and exuberance of this lovely collaboration of Rylant’s evocative words and Stringer’s entrancing paintings.” —Booklist, starred review   Cynthia Rylant’s lyrical descriptions of the sights and feelings evoked by falling snow blend gorgeously with the rich and beautiful world created by Lauren Stringer’s illustrations, in which a young girl, her friend, and her grandmother enjoy the many things a snowy day has to offer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781328740557
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	200,941
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	AD730L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Cynthia Rylant is a Newbery medalist and the author of many acclaimed books for young people. She's well known for her popular characters for early readers, including Mr. Putter & Tabby and Henry & Mudge. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. cynthiarylant.com

LAUREN STRINGER is the award-winning author and illustrator of Winter is the Warmest Season and the illustrator of many other picture books. She lives with her family in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visit her at www.laurenstringer.com

Editorial Reviews

An acknowledged master of “spare” and “poetic,” the Newbery Medalist delivers, her words drifting and blowing and coming ’round to the children who “love the snow better than anyone else does” in the end.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Snow is not an uncommon subject of picture books, but few have both the grace and exuberance of this lovely collaboration of Rylant’s evocative words and Stringer’s entrancing paintings.”—Booklist, starred review

"Rylant and Stringer (previously paired for Scarecrow) celebrate winter wonderlands in a cozy, lyrical tribute. . . . Like snow, the ending achieves a perfect silence."—Publishers Weekly

". . . hymned in Rylant's gentle, rhythmical prose . . . the shining star of this book is really illustrator Lauren Stringer's art, in small panels and double spreads, hallucinatory vivid in pastel shades of pale blue, white, and rose. The acrylic paintings blend the richness of oils with the airiness of watercolor. Stringer's snow is dream snow, childhood's magical snow, which, as Rylant reminds us, is the best-loved snow."—Boston Globe —

From the Publisher

Snow is a little essay written as a poem. It muses on what snow is to us, and us to it. Cynthia Rylant is a writer whose rhythmic sentences can make just about anything sound enticing, and so it is here…In any good picture book, words and pictures complement each other, each of them necessary and neither sufficient. Rarely do they resonate together as effectively as they do here. Stringer's illustrations are in acrylics on paper. They excel in their use of color, accurately pinning down every mood.
—The New York Times

Paul O. Zelinsky

Rylant and Stringer (previously paired for Scarecrow) celebrate winter wonderlands in a cozy, lyrical tribute. Whether they encounter heavy snow that buries "cars up to their noses," or the best snow of all, the kind "that comes softly in the night, like a shy friend afraid to knock, so she thinks she'll just wait in the yard until you see her," kids embrace the precipitation. Author and illustrator largely look through a nostalgic lens. Rylant wistfully observes the snow's fleeting beauty and the passage of time; Stringer casts a granddaughter and grandmother duo in the lead roles. The result can feel more like a stroll down memory lane (or a preparation for one) than a childlike, in-the-moment romp. Stringer takes full advantage of the book's oversize dimensions and offers a range of perspectives. Her acrylic illustrations brim with blue-white crystal creations-flurries, drifts and snowflakes, no two alike. And when winter asserts itself at twilight, Stringer also shows grandmother and granddaughter staying warm inside, happy to be together: "It's the snow's turn now," Rylant says as Stringer offers an aerial view of the house, "We'll watch it fall." Like snow, the ending achieves a perfect silence. Ages 3-7. (Nov.)

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Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2

A single snowflake on a midnight-blue marbled background ushers readers into this quiet celebration of snow that "comes softly in the night like a quiet friend" or falls so "heavy [it buries] cars up to their noses." In brief, lyrical text, Rylant states that snow helps us notice "the delicate limbs of trees" and "the light falling from a lamppost." It brings the delight of making snow angels and sledding and returning home to enjoy a warm drink. She urges readers to savor the phenomenon, for it remains only briefly. Stringer's acrylic paintings make use of small boxed scenes, full and three-quarter spreads, or full-page pictures framed in white, to display a world of snow-filled wonders. Varying perspectives help readers come up close to a group of multiethnic children gazing longingly at the flakes falling outside their classroom window and then view them from above as, clad in their puffy winter gear, they are finally released to cavort in its depths. There are interior views of a grandparent and child enjoying cozy activities at home and exterior scenes of the two enjoying a walk as twilight bathes the snow in pink hues. This is a gentle gem while Uri Shulevitz's Snow (Farrar, 2004) is a livelier treatment of the topic.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

School Library Journal

"The best snow is the snow that comes softly in the night, like a shy friend afraid to knock …." A little disingenuously, as she seems to love all types, from fat, heavy flakes to the light falls that "make you notice the delicate limbs of trees," Rylant begins her celebration of snow. An acknowledged master of "spare" and "poetic," the Newbery Medalist delivers, her words drifting and blowing and coming 'round to the children who "love the snow better than anyone else does" in the end. Stringer's illustrations are distinguished by lush, pillowy lines, the white edged with blues and pinks, and center the narrative on a child and her grandmother in sync with the snow. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews