My Favorite Picture Books: Winter Is Coming

Winter Is Coming by Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche

If you're looking for a book to read to encourage quiet contemplation of nature, look no farther. In the book, a girl waits and watches outside with her sketchbook and is rewarded with glimpses of animals preparing preparing for winter. Time passes as the pages turn and we see fall (September) turn slowly to winter.

Immediately after reading it, my girls wanted to make a place outside where they could just sit and watch the birds and animals. We have sketchbooks in which the children grudgingly draw when I insist they must before having a snack on our nature walks. Drawing and the sketchbook are never mentioned in the text, but the girl carries them everywhere and sketches appear in her hand. A book like this is more likely to encourage drawing in nature than one that specifically directs attention to the activity. She doesn't draw because she should or she must but because she loves the world in which she lives.

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My Favorite Picture Books: Snowflake Bentley

Snowflake Bentley

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Mary Azarian

As I write this, we are snowbound with what might be the greatest snowfall I've ever seen in my time in Kansas. It seemed an appropriate morning to fill my teacup and write a review of this book.

Wilson Bentley, a native of Vermont, was fascinated by both photography and snowflakes. This biography emphasizes his perseverance, experimentation, dedication, and appreciation of the natural world. In the sidebars of many of the pages, the author gives facts about his life.

I love how his parents supported his dreams. His mother and a set of encyclopedias were his teachers. She provided him with a microscope. Later, though they could not quite understand his dream, his parents spent their savings to buy a camera with a microscope. Can you imagine what the neighbors thought when they learned the camera cost as much as a herd of ten cows? Yet what a blessing it was to their son!

When the people of Vermont scoffed at his dream of photographing snowflakes, he was undeterred.

Willie said the photographs would be his gift to the world.

And he was right. You can still find books of his photographs in print, like this one.


I love this book despite the illustrations, rather than because of them, but they are friendly and inviting. My favorite shows Wilson trudging away through a snowstorm on the page on which he passes away, perfectly matching the text and tone of the page.

My Favorite Picture Books: Over and Under the Snow

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner with art by Christopher Silas Neal

Time to think about winter! I'm planning some winter-themed books to read with my girls this coming year and this book is a delightful new addition to our seasonal rotation.

A young girl and her father are cross-country skiing through the northeastern woods. As they glide "over the snow," they discuss the life "under the snow," in the subnivean zone. Deer mice, squirrels, shrews, voles, and bears appear, along with white-tailed deer and snowshoe hares and others. The bits of information about the animals are introduced naturally in the course of the story with more information provided at the end (along with recommended resources in books and online).

Christopher Silas Neal's artwork is all cool-toned for the winter season with the girl's red hat, scarf and mittens providing bright accents, along with the red fox. The animals are shown under the snow with the girl and her father above. Even I could pore over these pages; they are indeed art.

This is a perfect book to read just for the pure enjoyment of it's flowing language and illustrations, but it could also be a useful accompaniment to a study of winter habitats. There are plenty of topics for further discussion, if that's your wont: hibernation, life cycles, insects, amphibians, mammals, constellations, and camouflage (just for starters). I think this book deserves a place on every bookshelf, right next to Owl Moon (which of course should have its own post as one of my favorite picture books, but surely you've all read it already!).

Love Is on the Windshield

Love is scraping your wife's windshield even when you're leaving later than intended.

Perhaps Love Is what's not on the windshield.

Snow, Finally

Last Friday, we braved the cold to play in the snow. We haven't gotten too much here (and missed a big Christmas snow, though I didn't tell the kids about it) so they were so excited to be outside. I had to carry Second Daughter back in kicking and screaming, but it was really too cold to stay out for very long.

Our First Snow

Query XIII

What do I do with a baby who insists on removing her socks over and over again?

I mean, it's pretty chilly in the house. We keep the thermostat in the low 60s. Even Kansas Dad wears socks (and sometimes shoes) in the kitchen.

But the baby (yes, I know she's almost 17 months old) seems oblivious. Does that mean her feet aren't cold? Or do I really need to replace the socks every ten minutes?

Staying Warm

The kids have been begging to wear their footsie pajamas since I pulled them out of storage a week or so ago. Last night, it was going to be in the thirties, so I said it was finally cold enough. They were thrilled!


Hopefully we'll get a bit warmer weather before winter really sets in, but they're wearing the footsie pajamas tonight, too.