Product Description

A Caldecott Honor Book "It`s snowing, said boy with dog. "It`s only a snowflake," said grandfather with beard. No one thinks one or two snowflakes will amount to anything. Not the man with the hat or the lady with the umbrella. Not even the television or the radio forecasters. But one boy and his dog have faith that the snow will amount to something spectacular, and when flakes start to swirl down on the city, they are also the only ones who know how to truly enjoy it. This playful depiction of a snowy day and the transformation of a city is perfectly captured in simple, poetic text and lively watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42846 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-21
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .10" h x 9.82" w x 9.02" l, .30 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From Amazon.com
Uri Shulevitz won a Caldecott Medal for his illustrated edition of Arthur Ransome's The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, and has won numerous other awards for illustrating his own books. Not surprising, then, that he'd create such a lovely book as Snow, a touching story about childish hope, grumpy pessimistic grownups, and the wonder of snowfall. Will the snow come? (Oh, please?) In the first scene there is none, but the second has--if you can find it--a single flake. Then there are more--but they melt. And then, finally... joy! These are unusually subtle illustrations for a children's book: so many illustrators try to out-do each other with lurid effects and excessive brightness, but many of Shulevitz's exquisite panels are close to monotone. He paints whole cityscapes in a dozen shades of gray, with small human figures who you notice (at second glance) have coats of gray-green, gray-blue, or gray-brown. The adults have tiny Edwardian parasols or handle-bar moustaches. The abstract, atmospheric, folktale effect is heightened by a pared-to-the-bone text, just a few words per page. "'It's nothing,' said man with hat. Then three snowflakes. 'It's snowing,' said boy with dog." Snow perfectly captures the transformative nature of snow and the result is magical. Click to see a sample spread. Illustrations and text ©Uri Shulevitz, reprinted with permission from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Ages 3 to 6) --Richard Farr

From Publishers Weekly
In this companion to Dawn and Rain Rain Rivers, Shulevitz uses text as spare as a December landscape to cast a spell of winter magic. Despite predictions to the contrary ("'No snow,' said radio"; "'It'll melt,' said woman with umbrella"), a boy and his dog spy a single snowflake and rush outside in gleeful anticipation. Sure enough, one snowflake turns into two, two into three, and before long snow is "dancing, playing,/ there, and there,/ floating, floating through the air." In a lovely fantasy sequence that hints at the wonder children find in snowfall, a trio of Mother Goose characters climb down from a bookshop window to join the boy and his dog as they frolic through the city streets. The Caldecott Medalist works a bit of visual alchemy as the tale progresses, gradually transforming the chilly gray watercolor washes with flecks of snow, until his cityscape is a frozen fairyland. Pure enchantment from start to finish. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-When a young boy sees a single snowflake fall, he rejoices that a major storm is on the way, despite predictions to the contrary. But it is the child who prevails as the "snowflakes keep coming and coming and coming." Shulevitz's outstanding illustrations, rendered in watercolor and pen and ink, enrich and extend the brief text. The boy and his dog appear in the lower right-hand corner of the appropriately white front endpapers, arms and legs joyfully pummeling the air, and readers can almost forecast his announcement, "It's snowing." Pictures are framed in varying amounts of white space, the largest frames engulfing the nay-saying adults. The illustrations gradually build to a two-page spread in which "the whole city is white." Shulevitz's cartoons are filled with humorous touches: buildings tilt; an oversized woman carries a tiny umbrella; a tall man wears an outrageously tall hat; a radio almost as big as the person carrying it appears to have eyes, nose, and mouth. The characters displayed in the window of "Mother Goose Books" come to life to cavort with the child among the swirling flakes. Youngsters will joyfully join the boy in his winter-welcoming dance.
Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community-Technical College, CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.