Our Children's Librarian columnist, Julie Booker, brings us a new view from the stacks every month.

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Song for the Snow, by Jon-Erik Lappano, with Byron Eggenschwiler’s beautifully muted illustrations, tells the story of Freya, who loves snow. For two years, Freya’s village has been without white stuff. A vendor at the market gifts her a snow globe which plays an old tune. “Come home snow/ Fall from high…” For days, Freya shakes the globe and sings the song, but it only works when she brings it to school involving other children and townsfolk in the evocation. What made it snow? Was it the power of community? For Kindergarten to Grade 3.

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A Coyote Solstice Tale, by Thomas King, illustrated by Gary Clement, also for Kindergarten to Grade 3, is pure rhyming fun, with a theme of anti-consumerism the Grades 2 and up crowd will notice. In the middle of a snowy forest, Coyote receives a knock on the door from a girl looking for friendship, goodwill and peace. Coyote is nervous because people and creatures stopped speaking long ago. “Hmm,” said Coyote, “this could be awkward.” Coyote and his friends walk her back through the snow to where she came from only to find the trees cleared and a mall in their place. After the initial excitement of shopping, they realize they can’t buy what they really want: a generous world where everyone shares. Humour abounds in both text and pictures in this small-format wintry tale with a message.

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From small to large format, also illustrated by Gary Clement, My Winter City, by James Gladstone, depicts the city, and some of the ways snow effects urban life. From walking the dog in the snow, to tobogganing down hills next to high rises; from riding the steamy city bus, to passing “rows of locked bicycles buried and waiting.” The warm ending—snuggling under covers at home—asks: “That’s my winter city. What’s yours?” Which is a great writing/drawing challenge for kids, in Kindergarten to Grade 3.

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Another one to inspire young artists is Snow, by Joan Clark, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton. This one asks us to imagine: what if the world were covered in snow? Sammy gets up one day to falling snow and doesn’t go out until his house is completely submerged. He climbs to his rooftop and imagines: bears hibernating in caves, wooly mammoths roaming the icy earth, igloos being built, dwarves mining, moles drinking soda in their warm burrows. And when it melts, Sam is left “imagining grass,” which begs for the sequel. (Kindergarten)

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Because of one text-heavy passage, Last Leaf, First Snowflake to Fall, by Indigenous author Leo Yerxa, is best for grade 3+. The poetic text chronicles the birth of snow, beginning with “Before rain fell and became mud puddles and seas and rose again to become clouds…” The wind moving on the water, for example, “is how the fish were told of snow.” Two nishnawbe travel by canoe to an island where they hike inland to a swamp, using the overturned canoe as shelter. There, they experience the moment the last fallen leaf, followed by the first snowflake. They awake to a snow blanket which will “keep (the earth) warm during her long winter sleep.”

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When the Moon Comes, by Paul Harbridge, illustrated by Matt James, captures the excitement of skating outdoors. At Monday recess the kids decide, “tonight’s the night.” The kids trudge through a rural community along a logging trail, hockey sticks slung over their shoulders. The descriptive text allows the reader to feel the ever-present moon, the cold, the night sky, as the kids light a fire. When they get to the beaver flood—the ice has been waiting for them—they clear the snow and skate by the light of the moon. We hear their voices in the trees and see their shadows as they play hockey. The game ends when the puck gets shot somewhere under the snow and the sweat begins to freeze in their hair. (Kindergarten to Grade 3)

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Jillian Jiggs and the Great Big Snow, by Phoebe Gilman, captivates kindergarteners. They are immediately hooked by the rhyming text, relating to Jillian who loses her hat and mitts in the snow, and is scolded by her irritated mother. Each time Jillian loses one more piece of clothing, Jillian worries, but only briefly…her friends goad her into continuing to play, because isn’t that the best course of action? Kindergarteners will also love the pictures of buried aliens under the snowy (“Martian”) landscape.

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The kindergarten crowd will also love So Much Snow, by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko. Jasmine is told to stay home from school because of the blizzard but it’s pizza day so she heads out anyway. As she walks to school, the snow deepens, covering her feet, her knees, her waist, etc. while a refrain accompanies her: “Poor bum! Frozen numb. I can’t run!” Eventually only her head remains visible and she is rescued by the caretaker. There are various funny attempts by staff to unfreeze her and when she finally thaws, they all go out for pizza!

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On her first day as teacher-librarian, Julie Booker was asked by a five-year-old if that was her real name. She's felt at home in libraries since her inaugural job as a Page in the Toronto Public Library. She is the author of Up Up Up, a book of short stories published by House of Anansi Press.