White Snow, Bright Snow

Rating:
Summary: The first children's book to mention mustard plaster
Review: I think I shall begin this review by saying something sacrilegious. It'll capture your attention and allow me to get something off my chest. I've noticed that if you tell children's literature professionals that you think it would be a good idea to take old picture books and liven them up with brand new illustrations by contemporary illustrators, they look at you like you've just suggested burning the collected works of Dr. Seuss. Which is to say, they look at you like you're insane. This isn't to say this practice isn't done from time to time. For example, illustrator David McPhail (for reasons I don't even want to contemplate) thought it might be a good idea to reillustrate Beatrix Potter's, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". Usually, I think re-illustrating old classics is a bad idea. By and large, it's a dangerous practice that should be avoided. Then I read "White Snow, Bright Snow". This is a Caldecott winning book that is a fabulous read. I've rarely read a picture book that so beautifully captures the feeling you get when the world is first blanketed in a thick covering of fluffy white snow. Author Alvin Tresselt's words are some of the most beautiful you'll read, which makes it that much more of a pity that the illustrator on this book was Roger Duvoisin. I know many of you remember this book from your youth and I know many more would beat me with sticks for suggesting anything at all be changed about this wonderful tale. But honestly, let's look at it again in a clear light. I can't help but think new illustrations would suit this puppy perfectly.

In this story, author Tresselt gives us several different impressions and reactions to the coming of wintertide. As the sky looms dark and heavy with unfallen snow, a postman, a farmer, and a policeman and his wife all decide in their own separate ways that flakes are imminent. Heck, even the rabbits and the children are waiting for it to happen. "Then, just when no one was looking, it came". Snow means new boots for the postman and extra shoveling for the farmer. Snow means the policeman gets to soak his feet in hot water as his wife rubs mustard plaster into his chest (don't ask). Snow means the children can make snowmen, snow houses, and snow forts before throwing snowball fights. In time though, the snow drifts away and spring is coming again. The last image of the book is of the children watching the first robin who tells them that spring has really come.

Unlike most picture books written today (I hesitate to say all, but that's my impression), this book contains long wordy passages on one page facing a single illustration on the other. This would be tiresome if the passages weren't so well written. Just listen to this: "In the morning a clear blue sky was overhead and blue shadows hid in all the corners. Automobiles looked like big fat raisins buried in snowdrifts. Houses crouched together, their windows peeking out from under great white eyebrows". Even if you've never seen the effect of snow on a landscape, these lines are evocative enough to make you wish you had. Moreover, they summarize perfectly what the world looks like on a clear sunny morning after a heavy snow. So hats off to Tresselt. Hats off indeed. I only wish illustrator Roger Duvoisin could fill me with half as much awe and wonder. Duvoisin's illustrations are, in and of themselves, fine. I mean, there's nothing particularly bad about them. I liked the distinctly 1940s images (the policeman's wife wears some pretty hip dresses). I liked the image of the policeman twirling his baton. But these pictures suffer from a kind of messy skewed perspective. In context, they work. Yet after reading Tresselt's lovely passages, you find yourself yearning for lovely illustrations. Illustrations that are not forthcoming. I'm not asking for anything spectacular, but the green, yellow, orange, red-orange, yellow-green, and grey pictures (I've just listed the entire color scheme) are sometimes lovely and sometimes dull as dishwater.

So, as I said before, I make the sacrilegious suggestion that we ask another illustrator to try his or her hand on this book. Duvoisin's pictures are fine in and of themselves and I've little doubt that there are adults out there who read this book as children and would bludgeon me with stones for such an idea. Still, the words are so lovely, you can't help but want to pair them with pretty pictures. For an especially good storytime, consider pairing this book with the far more contemporary but no less adept "Snow Music" by Lynne Rae Perkins. Together, the two books capture every essence of what it means to live in a world of snowy whiteness. A great companion to the winter season.


Rating:
Summary: Suburban Perspective on Life in 1947
Review: Snow is the center of this book. Mr. Tresselt develops how snow is anticipated, experienced, and dealt with by a postman, farmer, policeman, the policeman's wife, rabbits, and children. The book is noteworthy for its social perspectives from 1947 more than for the story. As a Caldecott Medal winner, the high point of the book comes in the Day-Glo yellow, orange, and green images that burst from the white and grey world of winter. Mr. Roger Duvoisin has created a most unusual mix of nostalgia and modernism in these images that evoke a Stuart Davis type of feeling.

"Softly, gently in the secret night,

Down from the North came the quiet white."

"Drifting, sifting, silent flight,

Softly, gently, in the secret night."

These lines open the book and help create the magical mood of new-fallen snow.

The postman says that it "looked like snow." He "put on rubbers" to keep his feet dry. But during the storm, he "slipped and fell in a snowbank." The next morning, he "took out his high boots." When spring finally came, he walked slowly so he could "enjoy the bright sunshine."

The farmer said it "smelled like snow." He "went to the barn for a snow shovel." With it, he "dug a path . . . to the house." The next day, he used the path to the barn and "milked his cows." In the spring, he "let his cows out" of the barn for the first time that year.

The policeman said it "felt like snow." He "buttoned up his coat." But he "got his feet wet." He "had a chill and stayed in bed" the next day. When spring came, he "walked in the park."

The policeman's wife said "her big toe hurt." She checked the cupboard to make "sure she had cough mixture." When her husband returned from work, she "put a mustard plaster on his chest." While he is ill, she "knits a long woolen scarf for him." In the spring, she digs in her garden.

The children "watched" the snow start to fall. They "laughed and danced." They even "dreamed" about playing in the snow. In the spring, they "watched for the first robin."

The rabbits "knew" the snow was coming. They "hid in their warm burrows" underground. During the storm they "hopped about as best they could." In the spring they enjoyed "hopping about in the warm world."

Modern readers will probably be struck by the book's having a central figure be an apparently stay-at-home wife with no children in sight. That was common in 1947, and makes the book interesting from a sociological perspective. How much our ideas of sexual roles have changed since then! This story today would probably have the woman be serving as a police officer.

How can you find joy in snow and the long, cold days of winter? If you live someplace warm, how can you enjoy the change of the seasons by visiting snow-filled fields? When I was a child growing up in Southern California, my father would load his pick-up truck full of snow from the mountains and dump it on our front lawn. The neighbor children and I would build snowmen and have snowball fights, until the snow melted. These were some of the happiest moments of my childhood. I still wish spring came as soon after the snow as it did then.

After you read this story, I suggest that you and your child discuss how each of you perceive snow coming, how to deal with it, and your feelings about winter and spring. Then, this book can become a tool to help you communicate your feelings. I suggest that you extend the conversation then to other physical situations that you both experience, so you can enjoy each other's subjective impressions.

Look for the best in every moment!

Rating:
Summary: Suburban Perspective on Life in 1947
Review: Snow is the center of this book. Mr. Tresselt develops how snow is anticipated, experienced, and dealt with by a postman, farmer, policeman, the policeman's wife, rabbits, and children. The book is noteworthy for its social perspectives from 1947 more than for the story. As a Caldecott Medal winner, the high point of the book comes in the Day-Glo yellow, orange, and green images that burst from the white and grey world of winter. Mr. Roger Duvoisin has created a most unusual mix of nostalgia and modernism in these images that evoke a Stuart Davis type of feeling.

"Softly, gently in the secret night,

Down from the North came the quiet white."

"Drifting, sifting, silent flight,

Softly, gently, in the secret night."

These lines open the book and help create the magical mood of new-fallen snow.

The postman says that it "looked like snow." He "put on rubbers" to keep his feet dry. But during the storm, he "slipped and fell in a snowbank." The next morning, he "took out his high boots." When spring finally came, he walked slowly so he could "enjoy the bright sunshine."

The farmer said it "smelled like snow." He "went to the barn for a snow shovel." With it, he "dug a path . . . to the house." The next day, he used the path to the barn and "milked his cows." In the spring, he "let his cows out" of the barn for the first time that year.

The policeman said it "felt like snow." He "buttoned up his coat." But he "got his feet wet." He "had a chill and stayed in bed" the next day. When spring came, he "walked in the park."

The policeman's wife said "her big toe hurt." She checked the cupboard to make "sure she had cough mixture." When her husband returned from work, she "put a mustard plaster on his chest." While he is ill, she "knits a long woolen scarf for him." In the spring, she digs in her garden.

The children "watched" the snow start to fall. They "laughed and danced." They even "dreamed" about playing in the snow. In the spring, they "watched for the first robin."

The rabbits "knew" the snow was coming. They "hid in their warm burrows" underground. During the storm they "hopped about as best they could." In the spring they enjoyed "hopping about in the warm world."

Modern readers will probably be struck by the book's having a central figure be an apparently stay-at-home wife with no children in sight. That was common in 1947, and makes the book interesting from a sociological perspective. How much our ideas of sexual roles have changed since then! This story today would probably have the woman be serving as a police officer.

How can you find joy in snow and the long, cold days of winter? If you live someplace warm, how can you enjoy the change of the seasons by visiting snow-filled fields? When I was a child growing up in Southern California, my father would load his pick-up truck full of snow from the mountains and dump it on our front lawn. The neighbor children and I would build snowmen and have snowball fights, until the snow melted. These were some of the happiest moments of my childhood. I still wish spring came as soon after the snow as it did then.

After you read this story, I suggest that you and your child discuss how each of you perceive snow coming, how to deal with it, and your feelings about winter and spring. Then, this book can become a tool to help you communicate your feelings. I suggest that you extend the conversation then to other physical situations that you both experience, so you can enjoy each other's subjective impressions.

Look for the best in every moment!

Rating:
Summary: Fun book for young children and their parents
Review: This book won the Caldecott Medal in 1948. It is based on a poem the author wrote which came to him as he was walking a street in New York City, on a snowy winter night. The book takes place in the suburbs in 1948. It focuses on the anticipation of the snowfall, the actual snowfall, the children playing and loving the snow and then the beginning of spring. In this age of FEdEX and high technology, it is fun to see a postman and policeman walking their route. The story really seems like a fairy tale. It is absolutely charming. It has endured since 1948. Your children will enjoy it, and so will you.

Rating:
Summary: Fun book for young children and their parents
Review: This book won the Caldecott Medal in 1948. It is based on a poem the author wrote which came to him as he was walking a street in New York City, on a snowy winter night. The book takes place in the suburbs in 1948. It focuses on the anticipation of the snowfall, the actual snowfall, the children playing and loving the snow and then the beginning of spring. In this age of FEdEX and high technology, it is fun to see a postman and policeman walking their route. The story really seems like a fairy tale. It is absolutely charming. It has endured since 1948. Your children will enjoy it, and so will you.

Rating:
Summary: A Winter Wonderland from a Bygone Era
Review: This classic book published in 1947 wraps me in a soft fuzzy blanket of nostalgia and makes me crave the good ol' days of clean white snow and sledding, rubber boots and all the neighborhood children playing together in the huge drifts. It takes me back to being snowed-in, warm fire in the fireplace, hot cocoa and the Postman whose name I knew bringing armloads of Christmas cards. The world depicted in this book does not include the sound of a snow-blower or a snow-mobile. It does not have Doppler radar to let me know it's going to snow. In this book we rely upon the ache in a woman's big toe and the fact that a farmer says it smells like snow. The rabbits know it and the kids search the grey sky waiting for the first snowflakes. This book takes us from those first feathery flakes through a really deep snowfall. We're there as the townspeople shovel themselves out. We're there as the grown-ups contend with the winter snow and the children revel in it. Eventually Spring comes and is greeted with as much gladness as the first snowflakes. The simple four color watercolor illustrations are just wonderful and made me yearn for the days when we didn't hurry from climate controlled houses to climate controlled cars to shopping malls with trees and fountains, for the days when we were on speaking terms with the weather. The writing in this book is so lyrical and gentle that it makes a perfect bedtime story and it is sure to warm the heart of the adult who's doing the reading. For example, "Then without a sound, just when everybody was asleep, the snow stopped, and bright stars filled the night. In the morning a clear blue sky was overhead and blue shadows hid in all the corners." Share this one.