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No snow in our forecast!  The six snowflakes that fell on the last day of October do not count.

Up here in the Northern hemisphere, we expect snow for the holidays.  I remember some very, very, white and deep Christmases.  But that was then, long ago, when (insert your nostalgic holiday memory here).

Number 1 book on snow - ever:
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  This was the very first mainstream book to ever feature a child of color as the main character.  Although that is notable in itself, Keats' artwork and the simplicity of Peter's play raise this book to Book Idol level.  A gazillion stars of loving this book!!

While we are talking about The Snowy Day, Amazon Prime Video has tapped the talents of Angela Bassett and Boys II Men in its new animated version of Keats prize winning book.  Here's the story, on The Mary Sue, with a video clip and everything.   The video should be available now.

Red Sled by Lita Judge.  The book has no words - well, almost no words.  The illustrations of woodland animals "borrowing" a child's sled during the night are so precious.

The Snow Day by Komako Sakai.  A small rabbit is so happy when school is cancelled because of snow.  The falling snow mesmerizes him.  He has so much time to play.  But his father is grounded in another city because of the snow.  Sakai's muted paintings evoke that muffled quiet of a snowy day.  Her palette matches the grey sky and city streets in the snow.

 What is your favorite snowy day book?

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silence of the snowdrops 8x10, acrylic on canvas ©the enchanted easel 2016

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Uh oh. That’s a pretty steep cliff to sled off of. Will Jim and Ted be OK?

The post Jim and Ted 3 appeared first on rob-peters.com.

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It’s week two of the continuing adventures of Jim and Ted. (And yes, last week Jim was named Joe. I just decided that I like Jim better.)

Things don’t look good for them. Will they slide right off the cliff? Find out next Friday.

The post Jim and Ted 2 appeared first on rob-peters.com.

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silence of the snowdrops 8x10 acrylic on canvas ©the enchanted easel 2016

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[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

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Every winter the child inside us hopes for snow. It brings with it the potential for days off work and school, the chance to make snowmen, create snow angels, and have snowball fights with anyone that might happen to walk past. But as the snow falls have you ever wondered how it is formed? What goes on in the clouds high above our heads to make these snowflakes come to life?

The post How is snow formed? [infographic] appeared first on OUPblog.

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Once Upon a Northern Night by Jean E. Pendziwol, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault makes me weep.

I first read it back in April earlier this year, surrounded by a sea of people whirling about, chattering, elbow to elbow at a book conference. Despite the din of excited activity all around me, as I read Once Upon a Northern Night I quickly found myself inside one of those silent and perfectly still moments where the surrounding soundtrack fades to nothing, leaving a peacefulness where things can take you utterly by surprise.

Once Upon a Northern Night is a poem all about parental love. About how a parent looks at their sleeping child one evening and, with the magic intense love can provide, conjures up a wintry world full of wonder to gift to their child.

It’s a paean to nature’s beauty set against a snowy night-time backdrop. Pendziwol’s text (disguised as picture book prose) is some of the most beautiful I’ve read all year, set with those moments where description brings an unexpected focus to an everyday image, taking your breath away as you see it as if for the first, astonishing time.

Arsenault’s illustrations are masterpieces in the use of colour, even though they are primarily black, white and sepia. Accents of colour lift them off the page, acting like tangible manifestations of those poetic moments of startling, touching clarity. A certain (apparent) naivety in style acts as a foil to the rich prose, keeping our feet on the ground, ensuring the text’s tenderness never cloys but remains authentic and profoundly moving.

Every line is beautiful in this book, but one set of images caught my imagination in particular:

Once upon a northern night,
deep,
deep
in the darkest hours,
the snowy clouds crept away
and stars appeared –
twinkling points of light
hanging in the purple sky.

I knew by the time you woke,
the sun would have chased them away,
so I set them like diamonds
on the branches of the willow.

This made me want to bring home stars for my two children I sought out old chandeliers in our local charity and junk shops and we spent an afternoon taking them to pieces, to create mounds of stars-disguised as diamonds.

We then re-threaded them with silver silk and “set them like diamonds / on the branches of the willow” in our back garden.

We also hung some up in the window of our front room and now when the morning sun shines it scatters rainbows across my workspace.

I didn’t make the connection straight away, but I do wonder if I was a little bit influenced in this enterprise by Pollyanna.

Whilst we re-hung our stars we listened to:

December by Skipinnish (my kids’ favourite band at the moment)

Lintuseni by Finno Balkan Voices. Hauntingly beautiful music.

BBC Radio 3 currently have a Northern Lights season and we’ve heard some gorgeous, haunting music as part of it, not least during their poetry-and-music-programme-on-a-theme, Words and Music, all about the North Pole.

Other activities which might work well alongside reading Once Upon a Northern Night include:

Creating paper snowflakes. Here’s a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them. My little ballet dancer likes the ones turning snowflakes into tutus!

Use puffy fabric paint or PVA glue to make 3D snowflakes which will cling to your windows. Here’s one tutorial but there are many more out there on the web.

Signing up for aurora alerts. There’s Aurora Watch UK, Aurora Service (North America) and Aurora Service (Australia). And here’s an interesting article about auroras on planets other than earth.

If you liked this post you might like these other posts by me:

On the difficulties of sharing something you find exquisite – When Dad Showed Me the Universe written by Ulf Stark, illustrated by Eva Eriksson

Love and a lost toy – Ernest & Celestine by Gabrielle Vincent

Frost, birds and the countdown begins – Night Tree by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Ted Rand

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Disclosure: I was sent a free review copy of this book by the publisher.

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It’s unseasonably warm in my part of the world at the moment, and here at Playing by the book we’re all longing for crisp days, with snow and ice and sparkle and the sort of mint-fresh air which gives you the magical ability to breathe out puffs of microscopic diamonds. Dreaming of a proper winter, we’ve really enjoyed stepping into the world of Icelandic author and illustrator Lani Yamamoto with her new book, Stína.

Stína appears to live alone in a cabin (you can easily imagine she is a good friend of a slightly grown-up Pippi Longstocking). She’s inventive, clever, capable and resourceful, able to solve her every day problems with flair and charm. But as winter sets in, she becomes a prisoner in her own home: Stína really hates the cold and finds it ever harder to leave the warmth of her bed, even though she’s curious about the white landscape and children playing – apparently unperturbed by the bitter cold – she can see through her window.

This is a delightful tale of unexpected friendship and of being brave and imaginative enough to try doing something you couldn’t believe you could do. It’s about being a person not defined either by stereotypes (Stína has her own tool box but also sews and knits) or your own expectations of yourself (Stína is afraid of the cold, but doesn’t let it stifle her curiosity) and it is uplifting, empowering and heart-warming.

Stína is also simply but beautifully produced. A cloth cover and black line drawings enhanced by a restricted, primarily blue and green palette give this stylish book a homespun and yet stylish feel. The positive, can-do attitude of Stína, the way she makes friends and the story’s quiet exploration of the benefits of being open and brave make this a book it’s a real delight to share.

Whilst Stína is very much a story book, one of the reasons it appeals so much to all of us at Playing by the book is that it is also part activity book. There are instructions for finger knitting (an activity Stína teachers her new friends), and a hot chocolate recipe. Taking our lead from our new favourite heroine we set about trying to invent the yummiest hot chocolate ever experienced in the Playing by the Book Household.

We drew up a list of potential ingredients:

Cocoa

Hot Chocolate powder

Milk

Double cream

Squirty cream

Sugar

Cinnamon

Chilli flakes

Cardamom

Cloves

Nutmeg

Mini marshmallows

A vanilla pod

Sprinkles

Broken up bars of milk chocolate and dark chocolate

Each person got to create their own recipe using whatever they liked from the list. Rigorous taste testing was then carried out, assessing our hot chocolates, not only for general yumminess but also for interesting ingredients and unusualness.

Essentially this was like a “potions” making activity, but entirely edible (or drinkable) and with lots of lip and finger licking.

My personal favorite turned out to be a recipe using a good dash of cream and a pinch of cinnamon, though J preferred the version she created where the hot chocolate was stirred with a vanilla pod and M liked her version with a tall tower of squirty cream and lots of spices.

A simple but very satisfying after school winter activity! Indulgent and imaginative, I can only encourage you to set up your own hot chocolate testing laboratory!

Whilst empirically researching hot chocolate we listened to:

Hot Chocolate by Recess Monkey

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! sung by Dean Martin

The Little Holly Tree by Ange Hardy. Just such a lovely wintry song.

Other activities which might work well alongside reading Stína include:

Recycling your old duvets – homeless shelters and animal sanctuaries may accept them, if they are in reasonable condition and machine washable.

Planning some snow games just in case it gets cold enough to bring what everyone one in this home really wants for Christmas. Games we love include painting snow with water tinted with food colouring or even tempura paint, making giant coloured ice marbles with balloons, or stocking up on maple syrup ready for making sugar snow.

Trying out ARM knitting. Stína does some finger knitting, but have you ever tried using your arms instead of knitting needles?

If you liked this post you might like these other posts by me:

Some things are worth waiting for: Snow by Samuel Usher

Is it snowing yet? 2 winter reads shimmering with hoarfrost

Snowflakes, Seedheads and CBeebies

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Disclosure: I was sent a free review copy of this book by the publisher.

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Illo from SCARLETT: STAR ON THE RUN by Susan Schade and Jon Buller, Papercutz 2015.

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This was an illustration I did for an ad agency some years ago.  Only adults having fun on the ice.

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Artist and naturalist Jim Arnosky has been honored for his overall contribution to literature for children by the Eva L. Gordon Award and the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award for nonfiction. His latest book is "Frozen Wild."

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