5 comments about Snow.

1. Everything goes together in this book. The illustrations are simple and evocative, the text is minimal, you need to read it with weight to convey the mood; the gray, unremarkable city populated with gray, unremarkable adults is uninspiring. A little boy sees one snowflake (yes, it's there, look hard) and gets excited. Not so the adults: 'grandfather with beard', 'man with hat', and 'woman with umbrella' brush him off. The city is still gray. WE are gray, but the boy believes and indeed the snowflakes keep coming until they begin to build up on the street and buildings. The boy and his Mother Goose companions get happier and the illustrations get brighter. The dour adults are driven indoors, the boy dances with delight. Imagination, enthusiasm, and hope have triumphed.
   With few words and understated illustrations the book is amazingly alive!
   My only reservation is that many of the pictures are rather too small for a story group to really appreciate from a distance. In order for the children to take note of the details (such as one lone snowflake) it is necessary to bring the pages down to each child for a closer look. This does bleak the reading flow. A few unfolding pages when applicable (as in "Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me")would go a long way to making this story more visual. Aside from that little quibble I think this is a delightful book for children.



2. A perfect review would be like the painting "White on White" a blank to consider as a metaphor for snow, which really that's what the book is constructing- a paper representation of a first snowfall. And it would fit Shulevitz to leave a blank for "Snow" , I think he might "get it". As a teacher, I have several of his books and each has a particular quality I like to call "space" , they are creations of places that seem frozen and afar, a kind of wonder always over takes me as I read these books to kids. The reader becomes superfluous somehow. It's a very hard thing to find words for, his stories connect in another place, beyond text, "in place". In general if you are a teacher, as I am, working on the construct of "setting" with young children his books will allow you to focus on this in a way where internal image can be discussed. 1st graders after reading always tell me they can "go inside" his spaces and find a "reality. Lately I have spent a great deal of time thinking about reality. Going inside of writing and images and finding a "reality" is a unique construct to work to build with students. It is the heart of literature, unique to talk about with students and this author allows you to go to a "there" . And the there is not a there of this earth, it is a there of literary creation. Also as a teacher of children in a second language I notice they connect to these books. Really connect. With "SNOW" they had me read it twice and insisted on writing poems. Insisted.
   
   As for "Snow" it is the telling of adult and child perspectives. In snow. When I grew up in West Virginia as flakes fell my brother and I would go out to see, to see if they were sticking, praying of course for their layering our world.Mum and Dad praying to be left in peace.Their world of inconvenience so much a part of having to deal with it in traveling to work. Here in the story a boy, who remains just a boy, just watches the flakes and listens to the adults predict the possibility of getting a blanket of snow. For my students who live coastal in CA with no possibility of snow, despite the current snap of cold killing our beautiful tropical plants, these children need to read of this wondrous time in order to experience it. That is such a thing for me to create for them. It invites a teacher sharing of experience. I cannot overstate the beauty of the illustrations as they show the snows arrival to this world, he is, page by page unfolding this, this place "somewhere" which by "reading" the images grows into an internal space place. Ah....he is so good.
   
   Snow is a purity so many forget, humans need this. It places us in the world, stills our power, reminds of nature, is other worldly. It is trans formative. And this text goes to that place. Children know weather. It is real to them in a way I like to call naive understanding. They are feeling "SNOW" like poets..
   
   When reading this book I always fold and cut snowflakes with the kids. This year no child had ever done this before in my room. Not a single one. There is a champion book of snowflake cutting patterns in a Scholastic book. It's remarkable to cut snowflakes with 1st graders, study the crystal forms from internet images, look inside this text to see the images in "Snow" of snowflakes, gentle, beautiful forms to grace the classroom windows. I really can't imagine not using this book it is that much a part of my program with 1st graders here in Oxnard at Hathaway......
   Snow comes. It transforms. It is the silence and white blanket.Beautifully celebrated here in his book.



3. We (our two boys and ourselves) have checked this book out from the library countless times. It's about time we had a copy for ourselves AND that I send a copy to my NYC dwelling, 45 year old big brother who still believes in the magic of snow that all children know. The boy in this story reminds me of him.
   An all time favorite. Perfect in its simplicity.



4. This is a great book to read to students as the first snowfall is coming down. I have older students in ESOL but they are learning English and often come from other countries so reading an easy book is can be interesting and meaningful to them. This is a beautiful book they can practice reading on their own later after I have read it to the class. Many of my beginning students have never seen snow before so it is mysterious and very interesting to them. They love it!



5. THIS SIMPLY LITTLE BOOK IS DIFFERENT & WE R GLAD WE HAVE IT! GREAT IDEA OF SHOWING HOW SOMETHING AS SMALL AS A SINGLE SNOWFLAKE CAN QUICKLY BECOME SO MUCH MORE!!!

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1. The author of this book needs a history
   lesson. The book references the Old
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   pages 12-13. It is a gross distortion of
   what the Old Testament says about the
   relationship between Abraham and Ishmael.
   This book needs to be sent to the recycling
   bin.

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1 comments about Curious George at the Parade.

1. I love all the curious George books. Who Doesn't?
   
   author of "Hobo Finds A Home"