Snow Day books

With snow in the forecast we all tune in and wait for the announcement of a Snow Day!  We love them in our house, as most children do.  We start making our plans for what we will do with a free day.  This week as we waited to hear if we'd get a 2hr delay or snow day we read three of our wintertime books and thought we'd share them.  We have The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Snow Day by Patricia Lakin, and All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle.  There are so many more great books about snow, snow days, sledding, snowmen and much more, but these are the couple my kids picked out to share and review this week.

Snow Day 

Written by Patricia Lakin

Illustrated by Scott Nash

Copyright 2002

First published by Scholastic: December 2004

I highly recommend this book for beginning readers. 0-7.  Yes, I know that's a large age gap there but I have good reasons for this.  While this is not a board book therefore won't survive rough baby handling it's no reason not to read it to infants and toddlers.  We know that all reading to infants helps their brain development.  Snow Day has big, simple words and will grow with babies and it also has colorful illustrations that they will enjoy looking at.  As the baby develops reading skills this will be a first book they will be able to read on their own.  Using large print, sight words, and rhyming it is a perfect book for Kindergarten.  

The story of these crocodiles getting dressed and ready to go outside then learning that they aren't kids but actually the principles is super cute and funny.  I think that is the part that makes this whole book great!  I love the whole concept of the book.  What do you need to wear outside? Where is the safe place to sled? Who is going to go sledding?  It gives you the perfect intro to talk about winter safety.

Scott Nash did a great job with the colorful images.  I'm going to guess that he came up with the idea of having crocodiles instead of people and I think he did a great job there.  You couldn't have someone convinced that it's a group of kids when it turns out to be adults if it was people or even most other animals.  In true picture book fashion the art tells the whole story so kids who can't read words yet can still read the book on their own.

Snow Day Bottom Line: If you have a child 7 or younger OR you teach preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade you will love this book!

• The Story-line: is cute, simple, easy to read, made for young children, and keeps their attention.
• The Illustrations: are colorful, tell the story on their own, aid the text, are engaging, and cute.

The Snowy Day
Written (and illustrated) by Ezra Jack Keats
Copyright 1962
Awards: The Caldecott Medal

Another snowy day activity: Painted Rocks

This is a classic "What will we do in the snow" type book.  It's a sweet and engaging story about one little boy's adventure out in the snow.

I love how waking up in the morning to a fresh snowfall is so magical to children.  It's so pretty, peaceful, and full of possibilities!  I think this book captures that magic and possibility of a snow day well.  How much fun did we have growing up in fresh snow?  Making tracks, snowball fights, building snowmen, and sledding.  Both of my girls love the part where the boy brings in a snowball and it melts.

The text is more in depth than Snow Day which we just talked about, but it's not overwhelming for children.  This is a book we have been reading in our house since the toddler years.  Amazon says it's for preschool - Kindergarten.  As I said earlier it's never too early to read children's books to babies so pick up the book now for your little ones and I'd say even first graders would enjoy reading it back to you aloud.

The bright colors grab the children's attention and I believe that the simple not super detailed artwork allows the kids to use their imagination more.  What do the kids faces look like?  Are they smiling?  Where does this story take place?  The children can allow the story to be their own in their mind.

The Snowy Day Bottom Line:  Read this for your younger readers before your next snowfall!

• The Story-line: is easy for children 2-7 to follow along with, is fun and full of ideas of fun to have on your kids next snow day.
• The Illustrations: are colorful, imaginative, and help aide the story.

To watch what my daughters thought of both Snow Day and The Snowy Day you can watch their video here.  They each have their favorite out of the two books and go over what they like about each.

Finally we got a good wet snow to build our own snowman, and in honor of that we read All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle.  The kids made another video of their review and show off the snowman we made , be sure to check it out and follow them on YouTube for more fun videos.

All You Need for a Snowman
Written by Alice Schertle
Illustrated by Barbara Lavallee

our snowman Feb2018

Copyright: 2002

This is a cute poetic book about building a snowman.   Again I will say that this picture book works for the same age group of toddlers up to first grade when children are reading well on their own.  The lines of text are short and not overwhelming.

I love the step by step of building the snowman.  "That's all you need..." and wait for the kids to say "No, you need this next" and then continue to read "Except..." It's a very cute idea and interactive.

You can use this book as a great platform for building your own snowman.  I can see a whole lesson plan for educators around "What all do you need?" What type of hat? What will you use for a mouth? It's great for using your imagination. If you come up short on supplies for building a snowman check out some of these helpful kits:


 Barbara Lavallee did a great job with the illustrations, they are colorful, and fun, and fully aid the story.  Again like Snow Day this is a book that kids can "read" to themselves without having to read the words.  My kids especially love the full two page spread of the finished snowman.  The snowman is larger than life and wonderful.  At the same time my adult mind keeps picking out that there either the kids are the size of aunts or that there's some magical element that once the item is on the snowman it grows to be ten times it's original size.  That is just me over thinking the images tho.

All You Need for a Snowman Bottom Line: Read this and go make your own Snowman!!

• The Story Line: is easy to follow, flows smoothly, and is engaging and interactive for children.
• The Illustrations: are colorful, well done, and aid the story line while keeping the kids attention.

For more info about reading to infants and babies please check out these links:
Babycenter: Reading to your baby
The Benefits of Reading to your Newborn
6 Great Reasons to Read Aloud to your Kids

Now there are millions of great snow day books out there!  This has only been 3 of the ones we love, I am sure we will share more in the future.

Comment Below with your favorite snow day book!!