Snow Scene

PreS-K-- A guessing game leads youngsters from winter to spring in this quiet tour de force. The question, "What are these?" appears on a close-up of bark. A page turn reveals the answer, "Trees," as a stand of birches deep in snow-filled woods stretches across a spread. The questions continue: "And those?" next to purple splotches. The answer: "Shadows./Of crows." Each question is printed near a partial image that is completely revealed with its answer on the following page. Ice-covered branches and a girl with snow-flecked hair are included among the snowy landscapes that follow. Finally, dark, silent winter evening scenes give way to light, as the palette changes from deep purplish-blues to the bright blues, pinks, and greens of spring. Creatures appear after a winter sleep and earth surfaces through winter snow. A striking close-up of May flowers soon follows. All that's left of winter is a snow-capped mountain, described in delightful metaphor: "Winter's hat!" The acrylic paintings, all spreads, are lush and textured. The boy and girl who enjoy the winter woods and making a snowman reappear to relish such spring joys as romping in the rain and reading under a tree. The text is large and spare with one or two words on a page. VERDICT This perfect marriage of stunning illustrations and brief, often rhyming text in a question-and-answer format that will engage the lap set from the start is a first purchase.-- Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA

Readers move through and out of winter in a series of seamlessly connected acrylic paintings on canvas--it's unclear whether Seeger actually painted the book as one long continuous scene, but it sure looks that way. Jackson's pithy rhymes create a kind of guessing game to accompany nearly every page turn. "What are these?" he asks, as readers are confronted with birch bark trunks at close range. "Trees." A hint of black can be seen at the right edge of the next spread: "And those?/ Shadows./ Of crows." Readers also discover children, the snowmen they build, and deer, but then, "Just seen?/ A hint of green." The book surges into spring and summer, before closing with "winter's hat," a snow-capped peak. A simultaneously playful and meditative riff on how interconnected--and fleeting--the seasons are. Ages 4-8. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Nov.)