Product Description

Its winter. The wind blows and the ground is blanketed in snow. Whos behind it all? Old Man Winter wakes up in a bad mood, as usual. He has taken care of winter once more, but who is taking care of him?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2071139 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From Amazon.com
This book won the Minnesota Book Award, and, as the title may suggest, it's a Minnesota kind of book. Old Man Winter is an ornery ol' cuss in a rawhide hat, a kind of anti-Santa who spreads the fluffy white stuff across the land from the back of a magical flying truck. Stephen Gammell has won the Caldecott Medal and twice has been on the Caldecott honor list. His pastel-and-watercolor illustrations are richly colored, with a spiky quality that fits his grumbling hero perfectly. Purple and blue predominate--and white, of course--with the occasional smear of pale green. The text is extremely brief--rarely more than four or five words per double-page spread--and most of it is done by hand in a scratchy, irregular style that, like the illustrations themselves, are reminiscent of Ralph Steadman's deliberate messiness. Some will be amused, others perplexed by the surprise ending--Old Man Winter is no more (or less) than a young girl's doll! Either way, this exuberant romp is a vivacious, visually glorious tribute to winter. Click to see a sample spread. Illustration is from Is That You Winter?, copyright ©1997 by Stephen Gammell, reproduced by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. (Ages 3 to 6)

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3. It's time for Old Man Winter to go to work again but he wakes up late, misses breakfast, and climbs into his old truck feeling miserable and cranky. He gets busy flinging ice and snow throughout the atmosphere but he still wonders whether anyone cares about or appreciates his efforts. Having dumped a good-sized blizzard on the earth, he heads home for lunch but stumbles and tumbles to the ground, landing at the feet of a little girl. She picks up his doll-sized figure, gives him a kiss to thank him for the lovely snow, and runs off to play with her friends, leaving Old Man Winter decidedly sunnier in mood. Gammell's characteristic style is well suited to the wintry, wild setting. He splashes blues and splatters white across the pages with the energy of a full-blown snowstorm. The reds, yellows, and greens of Old Man Winter's cowboy outfit and the children's snowsuits heat up the action without detracting from the delicious chill of the snowy scenes. The story, reminiscent of Raymond Briggs's Father Christmas (Random, 1997), is less successful than the paintings. The fact that Old Man Winter appears to be a doll seems somewhat anticlimactic, but the premise of the book is fun and the illustrations leave wide room for interpretation on the part of young audiences.?Barbara Kiefer, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A little vinegar and a lot of glory find their way into this evocation of the joys of winter and the beauty of snowfall: Gammell (Jim Aylesworth's Old Black Fly, 1992, etc.) obviously knows a thing or two about snow. Old Man Winter wakes up in a bad mood, and the first glimpse of him, in a huge ten-gallon hat and his droopy white moustache, will draw smiles. He mumbles and grumbles--no time for breakfast--and takes his truck out into the heavens to distribute some ice and snow, wondering, ``Who do I make it snow for?'' Readers find out when a tumble sends him into a snowbank, and a little girl picks him up, defending her much-loved old toy against the name-calling of her playmates. Worked in pastel, pencil, and watercolor, the illustrations almost shiver with clear, cold exhilaration. Gammell drips and swooshes trails and splats of white and gold against rich, blue backgrounds; he sets Old Man Winter's rickety house and truck on twin mountain peaks linked by an even wobblier bridge; the children are marvels of variegated winter gear in purples, reds, greens, and yellows. The narrative text is set in regular type, while dialogue appears in Gammell's expressive scrawl. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.