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It’s February 2nd, so you know what that means, right?  Time to whip up a batch of delicious Punxsutawney Phil Pudding Pops!

Nilla wafers.  Is there anything they can’t do?  Get the full recipe for these little buggers here.

I credit the BB-Blog with that little discovery, but on the children’s literary side of things I hope y’all remembered to pull out all your Groundhog Day books in your children’s rooms.  I tend to forget, which is too bad since this is the only time of year the doggone things even circulate.

I did discover one 2011 Groundhog’s Day book worth celebrating, however.  I don’t know if any of you have seen Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox by Susan Blackaby (illustrations by Carmen Segovia).  If you haven’t, I highly recommend it.  For technical reasons I cannot officially review it on this blog, but at the very least I can suggest that you take a gander.  In this trickster tale a delicious groundhog is pursued by a hungry fox, outwitting him at every turn.  The lovely acrylics by Segovia make this more than a mere holiday book.

Now let’s enjoy . . . uh . . . well, there’s not much in the way of sun today so I guess we’re looking for an “early spring”.  Fingers crossed on that one.

Extra: For fun, check out the names of all the groundhogs around the country as listed by Wikipedia.  My favorites include Octoraro Orphie, Shubenacadie Sam, and Staten Island Chuck.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 28, 2010

Winter. A very fun season: Ice skating, skiing, sledding, building snowmen—or snow-ladies—and the perfect excuse for some good-old hibernation. Definition of hibernation: staying inside watching movies, playing board games, and reading books.

From picture books to a young adult novel, check out this uber-cool list …

Picture Books

Bedtime for Bear

by Brett Helquist

Reading level: Ages 2-7

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins (December 21, 2010)

Source: Publisher

Publisher’s synopsis: Wintertime is here, and that means it is bedtime for Bear. But Bear’s friends don’t think so. They want Bear to come and play outside in the snow. Bear can hear his friends calling. He hears them laughing and playing. Bear can’t sleep. But it’s bedtime! What is a bear to do?

Add this book to your collection: Bedtime for Bear

Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee

by Chris Van Dusen

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover: 36 pages

Publisher: Chronicle Books (October 27, 2010)

Source: Publisher

Publisher’s synopsis: One winter morning, Mr. Magee and his little dog, Dee, head out bright and early to learn how to ski. But what begins as a pleasant day in the snow quickly goes downhill when a run-in with a curious moose sends them flying through the air and hanging above an abyss! How will Dee and Magee find their way out of this snowy situation? Chris Van Dusen, the creator of Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee and A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, has crafted yet another fun-filled adventure for Magee fans old and new.

Add this book to your collection: Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee

Ten on the Sled

by Kim Norman (Author), Liza Woodruff (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 3-7

Hardcover: 24 pages

Publisher: Sterling (October 5, 2010)

Source: Publisher

Publisher’s synopsis: Author Kim Norman (Crocodaddy) and illustrator Liz

Blackaby, Susan. Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox. Illus. by Carmen Segovia. Sterling, 2011. Ages 4-7.

If you’re seeking a whimsical read-aloud for Groundhog’s Day, you’ve found it. Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox sparkles with wit and sly charm. Brownie is a clever groundhog that meets a hungry would-be predator on a cloudy February 2nd. The fox tells her, “Hold still…. I’m trying to eat you for breakfast.” Brownie’s flip response is that it’ s simply too late for breakfast. The two find they both hate to wait. Brownie suggests the fox work up an appetite by clearing the snow off the pond. Segovia’s humorous image shows the fox putting his fluffy tail to good use. Alas, after all that effort, it’s too late for lunch, says Brownie. Then the tricky groundhog leads the fox to a tree and winds her scarf around and around the fox, binding him to the trunk.

Brownie’s little heart is touched, though, as she hears the fox’s plaintive cries. She decides it’s time to share what’s in her basket: cocoa and cinnamon toast. The crumbs attract a robin — the first sign of spring! The two new friends leave for home, pondering their next adventure. The illustrator’s note describes how Segovia first conceived of this engaging character one winter as she sketched a groundhog. Her wintry palette, splashed with the fox’s red, is as refreshing as that impromptu picnic.

Enhance a snowy story with the cold facts, perfectly described and displayed in

Cassino, Mark and Jon Nelson. The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder.. Chronicle, 2009. Ages 4-9. You’ll be singing songs of snow, glorious snow after reading this snappy little informative book. Cassino and Nelson reveal the scientific nature of snow by using an accessible format featuring a brief fact in a large type size, then giving details in smaller text. Readers will learn of the three major types of crystals (star-shaped, plate and columnar), as well as other interesting facts. (It’s the molecular structure of water that creates the six-sided crystals, for instance.) The superb illustrations include both spectacular photographs that beg to be shared and Aoyagi’s ink and watercolor diagrams that show how a crystal develops from a speck of soil, pollen, or other substance, and then develops into an intricate six-sided beauty. Also noteworthy are the clear instructions on catching and examining snow crystals — just the trick for getting readers to venture outside to explore wintry wonders.

More and More Snow …

Alarcon, Francisco X. Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems. illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez. Children’s Book Press, 2001. Fresh poems, often written with an unusual perspective, grace bright and beautiful pages showcasing poems in both Spanish and in English.

Andersen, Hans Christian. The Snow Queen. Trans. and retold by Naomi Lewis. Illus. by Christian Birmingham. Candlewick, 2008. Ages 8-10. Don’t miss Andersen’s most beautiful fairy tale, a source of inspiration for C.S. Lewis and other fantasy writers. Of the many versions available, Lewis’s is the one you want. This memorable wintry tale begs to be read aloud: “The cloak and cap were made of snow, and the driver ah, she was a lad

Nest, Nook and Cranny
By Susan Blackaby
Illustrated by Jamie Hogan
Charlesbridge
$15.95
ISBN: 978-1-58089-350-3
Ages 5-12
On shelves now

I don’t know about kids in other parts of the country but in New York City kids get a particular assignment, usually around their second or third grade year. When the leaves have long since fallen but spring is still a long ways away we’ll get parents and children alike stomping into our libraries with specific requests: “I need a book on wetlands.” “Deserts”. “Arctic tundra”. “Do you have anything on woodlands?” I’m never entirely certain what to call these assignments. Searches for natural environments, perhaps? Whatever the case, our shelves begin to deplete and we search in vain for new titles to purchase for when the next round of requests pour in the following year. All this was in the back of my mind as I read Susan Blackby’s book of understated natural poems in Nest, Nook and Cranny. It’s a book that was accidentally shelved in my library system in the habitat and ecology section of my library, before someone noticed and reassigned it to the poetry section. It is indeed a series of poems, but I’m not so sure our kooky catalogers weren’t right in the first place. Teachers of the habitat assignments should consider using poems like Blackaby’s to bring to life the environments they are required to educate their students upon. With her words as an aid, kids won’t just the facts about a place. They’ll get the feel, the sounds, and the veritable smells as well. Here’s to poetry with a purpose then.

Desert, Grassland, Shoreline, Wetland, and Woodland. Meet five different habitats, home to an untold wealth of animals, bugs and variegated critters. In the “Before You Begin” section at the start, Ms. Blackaby freely acknowledges that the animals she ascribes to one environment or another sometimes mean bupkiss. “Thanks to accommodations or adaptations or both, some creatures can live anyplace.” That taken care of, she plunges into the poems. Using everything from villanelles to free verse, triolets to cinquains, Blackaby gives each habitat its own special feel. We read about a “dreamy home for beavers feeling dozy” or secluded places from “sandy strand to rocky scarp”. There are great lumbering bears emerging in the spring and coyotes that “hunt for jumpy prey” before becoming “jumpy prey” themselves. The end of the book contains a section of facts on different habitats and a Writing Poetry section that takes each poem and describes it at length.

Near the end of the book Blackaby explains that her poem about a bat is based on a Burmese poetic form called a “than-bauk”. She explains how it works and how in the third line “the second syllable rhymes with the third syllable in Line 2″. This is followed closely by a confession that “I cheated a little bit in line 3 by leaning on assonance and ignoring the word ending, which bends the rule without completely breaking it.” Blackaby’s fondness for assonance over rhyme was something I’d noticed long before I read this note of hers, but it was nice to hear her say it straight out. When I was a kid I was a very particular child with a definite sense of how poems worked. They rhymed. End of discussion. Over the years I’ve had to beat that belief out of myself, and for the most part I’ve been successful, but there are mo