If Snow Falls: A Story for December

Rating:
Summary: Gentle Christmastime tale
Review: In the quiet December snow that no one has yet stepped in, a young boy lies in his bed dreaming “of an old man like my grandpa…” The white-bearded fellow runs off to his workshop full of “pots, paints and parrots watching” and sets to work. He makes things in silent secrecy, and then puts them into a big sack. He dons a red suit and hurries off in a sleigh into the night, over the snow that no one has stepped in, off to the boy’s house.

This was Jon Agee’s first book. He has since gone on to illustrate a number of children’s favorites (“Dmitri the Astronaut”, “The Halloween House”) and has a whole collection of fun books on the oddities of language (“Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp? And Other Oxymorons” among others). What is a surprise (and a shame, really) is how little known this small, wonderful book is.

And it truly is a wonderful book!! It’s colors are slightly muted, giving it a nighttime, dreamlike quality. The text is short (only a few words per page) but so perfectly written that it makes the book feel like a soft holiday poem. It is a physically small book, measuring only a few inches across and tall, which would make it an excellent choice for very young readers or lapsitting.<P...In a world where Christmas tales are becoming more and more about getting STUFF, this gentle book about a small child’s dream when the snow falls comes highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Gentle Christmastime tale
Review: In the quiet December snow that no one has yet stepped in, a young boy lies in his bed dreaming “of an old man like my grandpa…” The white-bearded fellow runs off to his workshop full of “pots, paints and parrots watching” and sets to work. He makes things in silent secrecy, and then puts them into a big sack. He dons a red suit and hurries off in a sleigh into the night, over the snow that no one has stepped in, off to the boy’s house.

This was Jon Agee’s first book. He has since gone on to illustrate a number of children’s favorites (“Dmitri the Astronaut”, “The Halloween House”) and has a whole collection of fun books on the oddities of language (“Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp? And Other Oxymorons” among others). What is a surprise (and a shame, really) is how little known this small, wonderful book is.

And it truly is a wonderful book!! It’s colors are slightly muted, giving it a nighttime, dreamlike quality. The text is short (only a few words per page) but so perfectly written that it makes the book feel like a soft holiday poem. It is a physically small book, measuring only a few inches across and tall, which would make it an excellent choice for very young readers or lapsitting.