Happy New Year everyone! I’m a little “off” this week – Tuesday felt like Monday… yesterday felt like Tuesday… in any event I’m a bit late for this post but better late than never, I say!
I don’t know about where you live, but here in Kelowna, we have had snow on the ground since the end of October!!! Winter is HERE and what better way to celebrate the snow than to share a few SNOW BOOKS??? There are SO many SNOW books to choose from by I have tried to narrow it down!
Here are my top 10 (okay – 19!) favorite books (some old, some new) about SNOW! I have grouped the books into a few categories: waiting for snow, celebrating snow, animals in snow, and visualizing snow. ENJOY!
GearTip – if you don’t have a hard copy of the book, check online for the YouTube read-alouds!
WAITING FOR SNOW:
A Thing Called Snow – Yuval Zommer
With the support of each other and help from friends along the way, Fox and Hare embark on a wonder-filled journey to find snow. GORGEOUS illustrations! (I will be writing that comment a lot in this blog!!!)
Waiting for Snow – Marsha Diane Arnold
Adorable story time read-aloud about animals waiting for the first snowfall, some more impatiently than others. Giggle worthy in some parts but also gentle themes of being patient, waiting for the right time, as well as loving and supporting your friends while they wait.
Waiting for Winter – Sebastian Meschenmoser
Start off with the adorable fuzziness of a squirrel waiting for his first snowflake.. add a deer, a hedgehog, and a bear, mix in some humor, friendship, and wintry wonderfulness, and you get this magnificent picture book.
If Winter Comes, Tell It I’m Not Here– Simona Ciraolo
A summer-loving boy dreads the coming of winter but discovers that each season has specialness when you spend it with your family. Great anchor book for talking or writing about favorite seasons.
We Want Snow- A Wintery Chant – Jamie A. Swenson
Lively and fun rhyming text about kids who want the snow to fall so they can play in it. Readers will enjoy their snow chant and want to join in! Fun to see how the children change the chant at the end when they are tired of snow! I would use this book to inspire kids to write their own “Snow Chant”!
Only the Trees Know – Jane Whittingham
Another book about waiting for winter that was released this past fall. This is a beautifully illustrated book about the changes of the seasons and paying attention, seen from the viewpoint of an impatient young rabbit. The small rabbit spends his days pestering everyone he can, asking when winter will come. Finally his grandmother tells him to ask the trees. Lovely story.
CELBRATING SNOW:
Snow Song – A.K. Riley
Lovely poetic celebration of snow told in a simple narrative as a young girl explores outdoors on a snow day. The book is full of descriptive words, metaphors and interesting verbs, making it a great anchor book for descriptive or poetic writing about snow. Playful illustrations.
A Perfect Day – Carin Berger
A simple story but I’ve always loved the “feel” of this book! Its a celebration of winter as we join children making first tracks, gliding on skis, having snowball fights and building snowmen and forts. Gorgeous collage illustrations. A great book for talking about winter activities.
Perfect Snow – Barbara Reid
I have used this book SO many times for “making connections”. Barbara Reid PERFECTLY captures the excitement and anticipation of a snowfall on a school day! Signature plasticine illustrations are perfect, too!
A Sled for Gabo – Emma Otheguy
Snowy Day meets First Stop on Market Street! A young boy who is in a new town feels discouraged when he sees all the kids sledding in the snow and he doesn’t have a sled. But with the help of a loving community he discovers the joys of his first snowy day. Lovely story dealing with a tough topic.
ANIMALS IN SNOW
Winter Sleep: A Hibernation Story – Sean Taylor
In this gentle introduction to hibernation, we follow a child and his grandma through a winter landscape to explore how the Earth goes to sleep for winter. Along the way, we spot the sleeping animals through lovely cut-away illustrations. Info about hibernation habits is included at the back. Would be a great one to pair with Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner (next in this list!)
Over and Under the Snow – Kate Messner
This was the first book in Kate Messner’s “Over and Under” series and I remember how delighted my students and I were reading it for the first time and discovering the wonder and magic that lies beneath the wintery landscape.
Whose Tracks in the Snow? – Alexandra Milton
Really lovely illustrations, and the simple, rhyming text is perfect for Pre-K and K. I especially loved the actual-size tracks in the end papers.
Winter Dance – Marion Dane Bauer
All the animals fox knows do a variety of different activities to prepare for winter, from flying south to hibernating, but fox is unsure of what he should do. Beautiful, poetic text and GORGEOUS illustrations in this one! (See? I told you!)
Once Upon a Snowstorm – Richard Johnson
Absolutely gorgeous illustrations fill this heartfelt wordless picture book about a little boy who gets separated from his father during a snowstorm. With the help of the woodland animals, he finds his father again.
VISUALIZING SNOW
(and great anchor books for writing!)
After the Snowfall – Rich Lo
A quiet, gentle story that made me want to have a cup of hot chocolate!!! Beautiful illustration perfectly captures the wonder of nature and beauty of a forest after a snowstorm. Sparse text makes this a perfect book to practice visualizing! Don’t show the pictures right away – invite the students to sketch their “thinking pictures” that come to mind while they listen to the story.
Ten Ways to Hear Snow – Cathy Camper
Did you know that snow makes sounds? This is one of my FAVORITE books about snow (I feel like I’m saying that a LOT!!) with so many things to LOVE – it’s a counting book, an intergenerational story (grandmother and grandaughter), a diverse story (family is Lebanese), a great anchor book for teaching onomatopoeia (all the sound of snow when you step on it, throw it, shovel it. The quiet of snow is also a sound.) I developed one of my OLLI lessons connected to this book – you can download the free lesson HERE
Snow – Cynthia Rylant
Cynthia Rylant is up there in my top 10 (maybe even my top 5??) picture book authors. This book is an ode to the beauty and magic of the many different kinds of snow: soft, fat, light and heavy. Intergenerational, gorgeous illustrations, lyrical descriptions, personification, sensory details – this book has it all! LOVE!
Winter Eyes – Douglas Florian
Twenty-eight original, whimsical, humorous, descriptive, quirky poems about winter by my favorite children’s poet. Every poetry technique and structure you could ever want. Mic drop.