A Blizzard of Snow Books

We’re snowed under right now, what with teach­ing and writ­ing and, well, snow, so we thought we’d offer up a bliz­zard of books about the white stuff that falls from our skies.  Curl up with a child, a cup of warmth, and enjoy win­ter in the pages of a book.

The Snow Party, Snow, Snowy Day

The Snow Par­ty by Beat­rice Schenk De Reg­niers and Ber­nice Myers

A lone­ly woman who lives with her hus­band on a Dako­ta farm wish­es for a par­ty.  When snow piles up out­side, knock after knock at the door brings strand­ed motorists who make her wish come true.  This sto­ry, says one source, was “inspired by a 1957 Life Mag­a­zine report” — most like­ly on a bliz­zard in Kansas.

Snow by Uri Shulevitz

In a grey city, snow starts to fall, delight­ing a boy and his dog despite naysay­ers includ­ing radio and tele­vi­sion.  “But snowflakes don’t lis­ten to radio, snowflakes don’t watch tele­vi­sion.  All snowflakes know is snow, snow, and snow.” And they trans­form the town.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

A clas­sic sto­ry about a lit­tle boy explor­ing a snowy day in the city, smack­ing a snow cov­ered tree, mak­ing a snow­man and snow angels, slid­ing down a snowy hill, and putting a snow­ball in his pock­et to save. Sad that night when the snow­ball has melt­ed, he wakes to new snow and goes out into the snow with a friend.

Snowflake Bentley, Wolf in the Snow, Over and Under the Snow

Snowflake Bent­ley by Jacque­line Brig­gs Mar­tin and Mary Azarian

Calde­cott-win­ning book about a man who loved snow more than any­thing from the time he was a boy, and patient­ly fig­ures out how to take the first-ever pho­tographs of snowflakes. (Jack­ie: Sor­ry for the self-pro­mo­tion, but Snowflake Bent­ley was all about snow and would give me trou­ble if we left him out of this list].

Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

In this word­less book, a lit­tle girl going home from school in a snow­storm dis­cov­ers a lost wolf pup and braves the storm to return it to its moth­er. When she her­self is lost and exhaust­ed, the wolves sur­round her and howl until her par­ents find her and bring her home safe.

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Mess­ner and Christo­pher Silas Neal

A girl and her father ski through the woods, where wildlife abounds both above and below the snow. 

White Snow Bright Snow, Katy and the Big Snow, The Big Snow

White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tres­selt and Roger Duvoisin

A post­man, a farmer, a police­man (all male — the book was pub­lished in 1947) and a “policeman’s wife” go about their dai­ly tasks as snow falls and chil­dren exu­ber­ant­ly play in the snow until spring and the sun return.

Katie and the Big Snow by Vir­ginia Lee Burton

Katie, a big trac­tor who bull­dozes in sum­mer and snow­plows in win­ter, is the only plow big enough to dig out the city of Geopo­lis fol­low­ing a huge snow­storm with blow­ing winds. The maps add to the fun of this story.

The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader

A 1949 Calde­cott medal win­ner, The Big Snow tells about the wood­land ani­mals as they pre­pare for the win­ter blow­ing down on them. Lots of text by today’s stan­dards. Gor­geous illustrations.

Small Walt, Toys Meet Snow, The Snowman

Small Walt by Eliz­a­beth Verdick and Marc Rosenthal

Walt is the small­est snow­plow in the fleet, the last one picked by the dri­vers.  “I’ll dri­ve him,” says Gus as the snow starts to fall.  As the snow­storm turns into a bliz­zard, Walt plows and plows, even up to the top of the high, high hill and down the oth­er side.  Even Big Buck the biggest plow says Walt did a good job. 

Toys Meet Snow by Emi­ly Jenk­ins and Paul O. Zelinsky

A stuffed buf­fa­lo, a plush stingray, and a rub­ber ball ven­ture out into the first snow­fall, build a snow­man (with Plas­tic, the rub­ber ball, for a head), make snow angels, sled down a hill, and pon­der what snowflakes are and what a sun­set is before they go in at the end of the day.

The Snow­man by Ray­mond Briggs

In this mag­i­cal word­less book a lit­tle boy builds a snow­man who comes alive at night and takes him on an adventure.

Goodbye Autumn Hello Winter, The Tea Party in the Woods

Good­bye Autumn, Hel­lo Win­ter by Kenard Pak

Two chil­dren greet the late autumn — the leaves, birds, deer, flow­ers, sun, clouds, stars, trees, all of whom greet them back and say how they are get­ting ready for win­ter.  Then, as snow falls, the chil­dren greet the ici­cles, snowflakes — and win­ter itself.

The Tea Par­ty in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi 

A lit­tle girl sets out through a snowy wood fol­low­ing her father to give him the pie he for­got to take along to her grandma’s and finds her­self at a tea par­ty of wel­com­ing ani­mals instead. Her red wool hat adds bright splash­es of col­or and echoes (at least to us)  Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood but with more cel­e­bra­to­ry results in this strange and won­drous story.

First Snow, Owl Moon

First Snow by Bomi Park

In this spare and beau­ti­ful book a lit­tle girl is awak­ened by pit pit pit, the sound of snow, and goes out in the night in her boots, coat, (red) scarf, and mit­tens.  Accom­pa­nied by her lit­tle dog she rolls and rolls a snow­ball into a mag­i­cal world of many chil­dren all build­ing snow peo­ple .  When she returns home, we see the snow per­son she built back in her own yard, wear­ing the bright red scarf. 

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr

Anoth­er Calde­cott win­ner, a lit­tle girl and her father go owl­ing in the woods on a win­ter night. This real­is­tic sto­ry has a mag­i­cal feel­ing. And why not? There is after all, some­thing won­drous about snow.

Hope you all are able to enjoy snow, even if it’s just read­ing about it, this winter.

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