• Age: 7 to 10
• Grade: 2 to 5

Leo is a little flying squirrel with a problem. As part of his family’s acrobatic circustroupe traveling through the forest, Leo is expected to perform feats of daring onthe high wire. Only he is much smaller than his brothers and sisters, and one pawis abnormal, making it difficult for Leo to maintain his balance in the air. Afterhe ruins the final show of the season, in his shame and sadness, Leo decides torun away. Still, he secretly hopes that his family will come looking for him, notrealizing that he is lost far from home and winter is fast approaching.

Leo is forced to take refuge with a kindly and very short-sighted mole couplewhose underground home and unfamiliar life present some difficult challengesfor a flying squirrel. But in learning some new skills, Leo also learns that whatmakes him different also makes him strong.

HarperCollins is proud to publish this endearing story in its first English-languageedition, with translation by the multi-award-winning Sheila Fischman.

Nicole Leroux is a child psychologist who has worked for more than 25 years with special needs children. This is her first book, which received the 2004 Governor General’s award for Children’s Literature (French language). Nicole Leroux lives in Montreal.

Nicole Leroux's profile page

A Winter for Leo

A Winter for Leo by Montreal author Nicole Leroux won the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature (French language) in 2004. Award-winning translator Sheila Fischman shares with English-speaking readers this tender survival tale of a tiny flying squirrel named Leo who lives with an adoptive subterranean mole family for one winter. How he arrived at their door and why he chooses to remain in their company is only part of a mystery he is forced to conceal. Leo has a disability that separates him from his aerial acrobatic family. Readers empathize with his physical and emotional struggle. In a totally strange habitat Leo begins to understand that his disability forms the basis for his strength of character.

Reminiscent of the picture-like descriptions in The Wind in the Willows or the Mole Sisters books, where a few words spark children’s own imaginations before they arrive at the illustrations, Leroux’s minimal text convey’s Leo’s (and the other characters’) love for the simplest things of nature. However, the black and white drawings further allow young readers to identify these characters in their inventive human-like existence. Particularly enchanting is an organ-like harmonium that produces lovely sounds of nature.

Told with humour and understanding, this story enables children to explore their feelings toward the disabled while stimulating their imagination.