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This book won the Minnesota Book Award, and, as the title may suggest, it's a Minnesota kind of book. Old Man Winter is an ornery ol' cuss in a rawhide hat, a kind of anti-Santa who spreads the fluffy white stuff across the land from the back of a magical flying truck. Stephen Gammell has won the Caldecott Medal and twice has been on the Caldecott honor list. His pastel-and-watercolor ill... More

This book won the Minnesota Book Award, and, as the title may suggest, it's a Minnesota kind of book. Old Man Winter is an ornery ol' cuss in a rawhide hat, a kind of anti-Santa who spreads the fluffy white stuff across the land from the back of a magical flying truck. Stephen Gammell has won the Caldecott Medal and twice has been on the Caldecott honor list. His pastel-and-watercolor illustrations are richly colored, with a spiky quality that fits his grumbling hero perfectly. Purple and blue predominate--and white, of course--with the occasional smear of pale green. The text is extremely brief--rarely more than four or five words per double-page spread--and most of it is done by hand in a scratchy, irregular style that, like the illustrations themselves, are reminiscent of Ralph Steadman's deliberate messiness. Some will be amused, others perplexed by the surprise ending--Old Man Winter is no more (or less) than a young girl's doll! Either way, this exuberant romp is a vivacious, visually glorious tribute to winter. Click to see a sample spread. Illustration is from Is That You Winter?, copyright �1997 by Stephen Gammell, reproduced by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. (Ages 3 to 6)

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