Winter: An alphabet acrostic by Steven Schnur illustrated by Leslie Evans

Before you get excited about this book it is from 2002 and so it is long out of print. I was lucky to spy it at a recent charity book sale. In fact I very nearly hid it because it was priced at AUS$4 and I thought it might still be available on Sunday (today) for half price - and YES it was. It seems this book did not appeal to the hundreds of people who were at the fair and who flicked through all the numerous children's book boxes. Lucky me!

Is it too much to combine winter with the alphabet and then also employ that very overused poetry form of the acrostic? No it is not. This book is a delight and it also has linocut style illustrations which are very appealing. At first glance I thought this book might be Candian - they do produce fantastic books in Canada but it is not - Steven Schnur is from the US. I have discovered this book is one from a series one for each season (see below). Leslie Evans is a printmaker and illustrator located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Sea Dog Press is the letterpress studio where she creates her illustration and hand pulled prints.

See more pages inside this book here

Here are some brief teachers notes to use if you do find a copy of Winter: An alphabet acrostic.

Crystals

Of ice as delicate as

Lace ring the

Duck pond

Gusts of wind rattle the windows

As we sit by the fire

Matching puzzle pieces and

Eating popcorn

The acrostics in this book are well written (by an adult) and so fit the subject matter perfectly but I do caution against using this form as the only way to inspire students to write their own poetry.

Take a look at this article from a teacher about moving children on from using acrostics:

As soon as I start talking about their writing this poem, it is usually followed by the question “Can I just write an acrostic poem?” It takes time, energy, effort, strong mentor texts, and exposing students to great poetry to create a classroom of poetry writers who stretch themselves beyond the acrostic poem.

One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth

"One winter's night it was so cold it began to snow. ... He made himself some hot cocoa and got ready for bed. Suddenly, Percy heard a tapping sound. There was somebody at the door."

On the doorstep Percy, the Park Keeper, finds a very cold and miserable squirrel. Naturally Percy invites him to come inside. Just as they settle down, though, there is another knock at the door. 

Very young children respond well to patterns in stories. I am sure you have anticipated both the pattern here and the dilemma as more and more of the park animals arrive to shelter with Percy. 

"The animals pushed and shoved and rolled around the bed, but there was just not enough room for all of them."

Luckily there is one more visitor - the mole emerges from under the floor - but I bet you can't guess how he 'solves' the problem.

One Snowy Night was first published in 1989. My copy from a recent charity book sale is a 2019 reprint. Here are some other books by Nick Butterworth about Percy. I think there are more than 30 altogether including board books, activity books, individual picture books and bind-up versions. In this video Nick Butterworth reads After the Storm:

The Snow Knows by Jennifer McGrath illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

The snow knows

Where the rabbit goes

The snow knows

Where the pheasant sleeps ...

The snow knows where the porcupine ponders

and where the weasel bounds up and down.

Australian children who read this book will encounter lots of unfamiliar animals - and that is one of the joys of this simple tale. Each page also works like a game of hide and seek where your young reading companion can see a small visual hint of the creature on the next page. Lynx, otter, fox, partridge and coyote. I especially love the trees in the illustrations which I think might be larch. This is a perfect book to share on a cold winter day (even though here in Sydney we do not have snow!)

See more illustrations here

Here is the website for the illustrator Josée Bisaillon.  The Snow Knows is the winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. I was excited to see many previous winners have been featured here on my blog. I have put a few at the bottom of this post. 

This is a Canadian picture book published in 2016. It is a title from our Premier's Reading Challenge K-2 list [603347]. This book also contains examples of alliteration and onomatopoeia.

A beautiful book, destined to be a perennial winter favourite, and read aloud by a crackling fire. CBC

Previous winners of the Marilyn Baillie Picture book award from this blog. Pop any title into my search bar for more details. 

Missuk's Snow Geese by Anne Renaud illustrated by Geneviève Côté

Litte Missuk lives in the far north of Canada. Her father carves soap stone pieces into animals and Missuk longs to learn how to do this but for now she will have to wait because her father needs to set off hunting for caribou. Missuk fills in her day sewing new mittens with her mother and then trying a little carving project but she is so restless. Outside the air is warm but the land is covered in snow. The sky is vast and lying on her back in the snow she sees a flock of migrating snow geese. Missuk makes up a game of lying in the snow and leaving bird-shaped imprints along the trail taken by her father that morning.

Late in the day and into the evening her father does not return. Missuk goes to bed and while she does sleep her dreams become nightmares as her imagination wonders if her father has had an accident or if the husky dogs are trapped in broken ice. Eventually her father does return. He is cold and very tired but once he recovers he explains how he did become lost in a snow storm but close to home he found something special.

"I would have been lost had I not come upon a trail of goose shapes stamped into the snow. Those birds led me across the tundra and up to a hilltop from where I saw our igloo. This is how I found my way home."

Missuk's Snow Goose was published in 2008 so sadly it is out of print but I was pleased to see it was featured in our NSW School magazine in 2019. I picked up this book because I like the illustrations by Geneviève Côté. Here is an interview with Seven impossible Things.

Côté’s watercolor-wash and charcoal pictures warmly illuminate the family’s emotional connection against a harshly beautiful landscape that teems with wildlife. Kirkus

I previously talked about Ella May and the Wishing Stone by Cary Fagan illustrated by Genevieve Cote.

This week IBBY Canada released a wonderful list of Indigenous Picture Books. We are so lucky here in Australia that we speak English and so we can enjoy books from Canada.

Take a look at the three lists - 2018, 2021 and 2023. If you are in Australia you might like to hunt out books illustrated by Julie Flett, Qin Leng, and Soyeon Kim.

When I worked in Canada in 1994 one of my projects was to collect one picture book from each province. I almost completed this task. Here are some of the books I bought home. I have given a few away over the years so there are a few titles I have forgotten (sadly):

If You're Not from the Prairie by David Bouchard illustrated by Henry Ripplinger

Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades

Belle's Journey by Marilyn Reynolds illustrated by Stephen McCallum

Last Leaf First Snowflake to fall by Leo Yerza

Oh, Canada by Ted Harrison

Baseball bats for Christmas by Michael Kusugak illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka

A horse called Farmer by Peter Cumming illustrated by P. John Burden

The Mummers Song by Bud Davidge illustrated by Ian Wallace

A Prairie Alphabet by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet illustrated by Yvette Moore Montréal

Raven Child and the Snow Witch by Linda Sunderland illustrated by Daniel Eguéus

You might like to begin with this spellbinding animation of Raven Child and the Snow Witch. 

Anya's mother sets off at the start of Spring, with a flock of ravens, to collect gentian flowers. I had never heard of these but after a little research I have discovered these pretty blue flowers represent justice and victory - and these are themes in this story. 

Image Source: BBC Plant Finder

While waiting for her mother to return Anya falls asleep and she has a dream that her mother has been taken prisoner by the Snow Witch. Anya tells her father they need to set off straight away to rescue her but a Raven arrives with a broken wing. The Raven explains that he saw Anya's mother fall into a glacier - it seemed to swallow her and all of the Ravens. 

The next day Anya, her father and the wounded Raven set off to the ice covered mountains. Close to the glacier they find a wounded Arctic Fox so now they are a group of four but it is Anya who marches bravey alone to confront the Snow Witch. This evil woman is filled with rage and power but Anya has a secret weapon - she has her own deep love for her mother and this is more powerful than the bitterness of the evil witch. The ice begins to melt and the Ravens lift the Snow Witch into the sky.

"The Snow Witch shrieked as her world began to melt and she felt her power failing. The ravens caught hold of her hair and pulled her upwards, crashing through the glacier like black fireworks. She shattered into a thousand jagged crystals that sank into the depths of the ocean."

The story in this book feels like a fairy tale (I am thinking of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen) and Linda Sunderland uses some beautiful phrases but the real magic in this book comes from the delicate illustrations. The snow looks so cold. 

Here are a few fragments of the text:

"They were Anya's special lucky flower and they glowed in the dark like sapphires."

"Far away, the gleaming glacier stretched high into the coldest sky where snow is born."

"The hunted creature shook its silvery fur and sniffed the air with its pointy noise; it was an Arctic fox, ghost of the snow."

"They trudged many miles, until at last they saw lights from a village. As they approached the air filled with tears, and the villagers told them of the beautiful woman who had enchanted their children and stolen them away ... "

Make sure you stop and read the poem on the title page which serves as a warning about the Snow Witch.

Who wakes from a sleep of a thousand years? 

Who loves the sound of sighs and tears?

Who changes water into stone?

Who puts the cold in the aching bone?

Who kills colour with deadly white?

Who gives the wind its freezing bite?

Who lurks beneath the glaciers skin?

Who watches, smiles and lures you in?

Today I visited a charity book sale (Lifeline Book Fair) and picked up 48 books for just $80. There are always treasures to be found at these regular fairs and the organisers have high standards to you can be sure the books are in great condition. Some books are in such great shape they look brand new. I don't think my book today has been read more than once in a family - it is in mint condition. It cost $2. 

Raven Child and the Snow Witch was first published in 2016 by Templar in the UK but my copy is from Five Mile Press in Australia. I have the hardcover edition [9781760405144] and it is out of print but the paperback is still available. This is a longer picture book with 48 pages so I would share it with children aged 6+. This book will greatly appeal to fans of the movie Frozen too. 

The illustrations are as powerful and dramatic as the story with bold dark colours set against the vast white of the snow and ice. The use of perspective highlights how small Anya and her father are against the imposing glacial mountains and there is a real sense of anticipation surrounding the Snow Witch. Acorn Books Blog

A stunningly illustrated story, reminiscent of Hand Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, Anya's quest to find her mother and her befriending of animal friends along the way is a mythic tale you'll want to return to every winter. Book Trust

The glittery and sparkly cover is incredibly attractive – I am not sure if I have ever seen such a beautifully presented front and back cover of a book. In the right light the books glistens like freshly fallen snow. Daniel Egnéus has exquisitely illustrated this book. Each page is a complete work of art and shows the emotions of the characters. The use of contrasting colours really makes the main theme and subject stand out of the page. His use of black portrays the desolate landscape, whilst the varied blue tones give the cold frozen ice feeling. Book Bag

Daniel Egneus is a also a fashion illustrator. Born in Sweden, Daniel has lived in Prague, London, Berlin, Bologna, Rome, Milan and has now made Athens his base.   I previously talked about The Thing and I have seen Moth and it is also a wonderful book. 

The Thing

Meet the illustrator Cate James

I borrowed some winter books from the library this week. Books filled with snow and winter animals. When I picked up Go Home, Little One! (see below for more details) I was surprised to see the name Cate James. I briefly met Cate in my local bookshop (Beachside Bookshop) a few years ago when her book Echidna had just been published. I was curious to discover more about this illustrator. 

Cate James is originally from Scotland but she came to live in Australia in 2015. I love the way her change of country is so beautifully reflected in her work. Here is an extract from her website:

Cate is an award-winning illustrator and artist based in the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. She moved from Edinburgh, Scotland in 2015 and recently became an Australian citizen. She has been working as a full-time freelance illustrator since 2010, and has a background in printmaking.

Here is an interview with Cate James where she shares the inside of her studio.

Here are two of her early books:

And here are her more recent titles:

Here is a review from Kids' Book Review

Read more here

Cate has also worked on book covers for Barrington Stoke and for this series by Vivian French:

In Go Home, Little One we meet young Florence the hedgehog. It is time to snuggle inside and hibernate but Florence wants to play outside with her friends. Their game takes Florence and the twin squirrels, Harry and Barry, deep into the forest. Every animal they meet advises the trio to head home but they want to continue their game and that is fine until they meet Mr Fox! This links nicely with Cate's own favourite childhood book - Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins.

The Mitten: A Ukrainian Folktale

 A young boy (or in some versions an old man) drops his mitten in the snow. A series of animals discover the warm mitten and each one climbs inside. The mitten stretches and stretches to accommodate animals which are diverse in size and temperament. In the Jan Brett version the animals include a snowshoe rabbit, a mole, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a giant brown bear and a tiny meadow mouse. In the version by Alvin Tresselt the mitten is taken over by a tiny mouse, a green frog, an owl,  a rabbit, a fox, a wolf, a wild boar, a bear and finally a tiny cricket. One review called this a "progression tale." In the version by Alvin Tresselt, pictured above, the mitten disintegrates after the arrival of the final creature whereas in Jan Brett's version the boy finds the mitten and we see his grandmother standing puzzled as she compares its size against the original. 

Recently my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything talked about The Mitten and the way she had several versions in her school library but there was one she especially liked. I assumed this was the Jan Brett (1989) version but she said no so this made me curious to read this old tale and to seek out different copies.  When I checked her blog post I read she liked the one illustrated by Yaroslava because: "the language is better here as it is detailed and descriptive and the story fun."

On her website Jan Brett describes her version: 

"When Nicki drops his white mitten in the snow, he goes on without realising that it is missing. One by one, woodland animals find the mitten and crawl in; first a curious mole, then a rabbit, a badger and others, each one larger than the last. Finally, a big brown bear is followed in by a tiny brown mouse, and what happens next makes a wonderfully funny climax. As the story of the animals in the mitten unfolds, the reader can see Nicki in the borders of each page, walking through the woods unaware of what is going on. Once again Jan Brett has created a dramatic and beautiful picture book in her distinctive style. She brings the animals to life with warmth and humour, and her illustrations are full of visual delights and details faithful to the Ukrainian tradition, from which the story comes."

In this School Library Journal blog post Elizabeth Bird talks about The Mitten. I found a few other editions including one shaped like a mitten and a board book pack which included a mitten! Perhaps next Winter (it is Spring right now here in Australia) you might like to find a few different version of The Mitten to share with your class. You could compare the simple things such as the choices of animals, critique the illustrations or discuss the language used to tell this story.  As my friend said the version by Alvin Tresselt is filled with rich language - the mitten has a feathery cuff; red wool lining; and is made from old leather. You could also compare opening sentences and endings. Jan Brett opens her version with the words "Once there was a boy named Nicki who wanted his new mittens made from wool as white as snow."  Alvin Tresselt opens his version more directly with the words "It was the coldest day of the winter, and a little boy was trudging through the forest gathering firewood for his grandmother." And finally the version by Jim Alyesworth says "Once upon a time there was a happy little boy who loved to play."

Check out the online version of this one (this site does contain advertisements)

I also found this Ukrainian stamp which celebrates this famous folktale.

Image source: Wikipedia

Here are some illustrations from different versions of The Mitten

Jan Brett

Yaroslava

Evgenii Rachev (1950)

Once upon a Northern night by Jean E Pendziwol illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

 

It started with one tiny flake

perfect

and beautiful

and special,

just like you.

This book reads like a love letter to a child. The snow is like vanilla ice cream, a downy blanketand puffs of creamy white like balls of cotton. Outside is a magical place described in loving detail to a sleeping child.

The setting of this book is the Northern Hemisphere but as we are about to head into Winter here in Australia I think this lyrical and scrumptiously illustrated picture book would be perfect to share over the coming weeks.

Once Upon a Northern Night offers an enchanting interplay of text and illustration that grows richer with each turn of the page, and seems destined to join the ranks of winter-themed classics to be reached for year after year. Quill and Quire - Sarah Sorensen

One of the loveliest picture books you’ll see all year long. Julie Danielson Kirkus

... authentic and profoundly moving. Playing by the Book

I went shopping this week for new picture books to add to my already crowded home shelves. My criteria included - a lyrical text; a meaningful story; exquisite illustrations; and a book to treasure. I browsed the shop shelves for more than an hour and eventually I found this beautiful book (paperback 2015). You can see some of the art and text here. 

Canadian picture books are always very special. Take a look here to see other books illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. I particularly love Just Because; Captain Rosalie; and Spork.  Take a look inside Once upon a Northern night.

Please read this book on a quiet winter night, then watch this beautiful video from the publisher and finally pick up Owl Moon as a companion read:

You might also look for these books in your library: