Snowmen All Year (Snowmen)

In their third Snowmen title, the Buehners portray a gap-toothed boy's gleefully silly fantasies about playing with his lovable snowman year-round ("On summer evenings in the dark/ We'd chase some fireflies, / Or sleep out in the quiet woods/ Beneath the starry skies"). On a stormy evening, the boy and his snowman play chess (the snowman's pieces are all miniature snowmen), and on Halloween, they go trick-or-treating (no costume required for the snowman). Mark Buehner's paintings delight in showing off the joyfully absurd situations and rapport between the boy and his friend, never more so than when the snowman does a nosedive into a backyard pool. Ages 3-6. (Oct.)

Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 1—"I love to build a snowman/On freezing winter days./But when the sun is bright and warm/My snowman melts away./There's nothing but a puddle/When my snowman disappears./If only he were magic/And could stay with me all year!" With these words, a gap-toothed boy begins an odyssey with his carrot-nosed friend, teaching him to swim and to fly a kite, visiting the amusement park and the zoo, playing at the beach, watching fireworks, and so on. Caralyn Buehner's rhyming text—only occasionally bumpy—sets the scene nicely, while Mark Buehner paints the scenery in gorgeously luminous oils and acrylics. With changing perspectives, places, and details that show off the illustrator's skill and imagination, every spread explodes with glee. Readers will explore the pictures again and again to take up the trademark challenge: find the hidden creatures in each scene. A celebration of friendship and sheer fun.—Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY