I liked the cover art of When the Snow Falls illustrated by Jana Christy. I was hoping the text by Linda Booth Sweeney would be as big of a hit. Unfortunately, it was not.
Spoiler: The fact that all the sudden the parents disappear, and the kids are now at Grandma’s house is odd. They went from the country to the city in what seems like a blink. The one scene that looks like travel happens is the grandmother is pushing the children in a sled. Did the grandmother push the kids back to her place? I had to go back and re-look at the illustrations to see what happened. And I am still not sure when this change in location took place.
However, there is a bi-racial family and is presented as “normal.” There is no telling you that “Grandmas is black and Grandpa is white.” They never tell you which parent of the child narrator has this parentage. It is just there without making a big deal about it. In fact, I did not realize this piece of information until the re-look. It was normalized, and because of that, this is most likely my favorite part of the book.
I think that the poetic nature of the book will lend itself to adults appreciating it more than the average child. Of course, the child who has grown up around snow, or has snow at the grandparent’s place, would probably appreciate it more. The pleasant art is throughout the book, making a nice treat for the eyes. Details are worth looking for as they have some hidden gems, too.