Snowy Day Picture Books

Well it is Picture Book week, and in honor of the snowy week we had (five days of school off down here in the south!) I chose picture books that had snow in them.

#1 Snowy Bugs by David A. Carter

d very well done. The ones I always had, including this one, were always about bugs. We had the big bug book and I think one that had to do with bug monsters or something. The pop up images look like they are just doodles or scraps of paperDavid A. Carter is pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself. I remember having some of his books when I was little. They are pop up books an artfully put together. There isn't much of a story line ("Whose that behind the window? It's a thermometer bug!), nor is it very scientifically accurate - but it is art, and fun to look at! If you

haven't read his books to your two or three year olds (or if you haven't read them yourself), I would go and check them out!

#2 The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

This book is so well done. It is so simple. A child goes out to play in the snow and hopes that there is more snow tomorrow. It really captures the simple love a child has for the snow. It is not a write-off quitsy-pootsy little story as if Keats was like "hmmm...I know I'll write about a child liking snow." Keat's text captures the innocents and pureness of a child's point of view. This text seems as if it were actually written by a child. I love picture books mainly for the art within. This book has that. The background is very simple (the buildings are simply colored blocks), but it reminds me of a quilt. The background in big block colors, the foreground has more detail but still pretty simple shapes. It is very well done.

#3 The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett

If you are looking for art in your books this is the writer who will get it done! Jan Brett has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl. I saw the word snow in the title and pulled it off the shelf to find that it was written by Brett. This woman gets every detail down to the little faire-isle patterns on the sweaters. This story is the Inuit version of Goldilocks and the three bears accompanied by Brett's beautiful images

#4 The Smiley Snow Man by Christine Butler and Tina Macnaughton

Cute, good moral, glitter. That pretty much sums up this story. While it is cute in an everyone-needs-to-be-loved-hugs-for-free kind of way, it's not a story I would recommend for someone older than four.

#5 Rabbit's Winter Walk by Lorna Hussey

Gotta tell you, I can relate to the rabbit in this story: He's over winter and is searching for spring. Ok, it's really not that cold here, but there is a reason I live in the south. Anyways this story is cute. I like that it has embossed snowflakes and butterflies and that the fur on all the animals is tactically pleasing. I would actually use this text in a high school class as a quick activity for the action archetype: Searching for the untouchable.

Okay, I have to teach in the morning and I am tired so Goodnight!

Heart of Darkness

Well I bet no one will believe me if I swear up and down that I finished the book before the weekend ended. However, I do swear. It's just between the spontaneous dinner with the family and the snow storm (In the south 3 inches = a snow storm, if you are from the north laugh all you want, but here in the south I am glad to have the day off from student teaching!)

So I chose this book because of a debate I could not participate in last semester in my education class. The debate was people who loved Heart of Darkness and people who couldn't stand it. Having never even heard of the book, I could not participate in the conversation. Thus I decided I had to read it; especially after I found out that it was a common text in high school English classes.

Well, here is my opinion. As my boyfriend says, "sometimes classics are classics because they are old, not because they are great." If you've ever had a class where you had to do some creative writing they will constantly tell you "show, do not tell," and you will find that the books that keep you up until two in the morning because you can't put them down, do show and do not tell. This book is literarily people sitting around listening to this guy tell a story. I felt as if I was sitting and listening to an old man talk about his war days for hours on end. My mind continually wandered throughout the whole book causing me to have to return and reread several parts. Also, I do not see why we teach this text to our students. Every other word is a word I know my students do not know, and the plot jumps around and contains too many characters with too few names. Anyways, I would not recommend this text if you do not have to read it for a class. Sorry to all who do love it.

Winnie The Pooh

Or Winnie-Ther-Pooh as Christopher Robbin claims. Okay, Okay I know this doesn't exactly count as Young Adult Fiction, nor does it really count as a new book. I use to listen to this book on tape every night when I was going to sleep, and I believe that it was on my bookshelf for my entire life, but I didn't really remember it, and it is a very good book, and so I decided to read it, so if you have read it you will recognize the style of writing I am doing is very reminiscent of Milne who creates a rambling, nostalgic tone in order to bring alive his not so animate characters. This book is still lovely. If you have ever had a stuffed animal as a child who you knew was alive, then you can identify with Christopher Robbin and his friends in the hundred acre woods. Quick read and Oh so Cute!