Nothing like having a few minutes to read a picture book. The thing is, with these two books I need a lot more than a few minutes! I need to sit down and take oh, 3 to 5 minutes per page. Each book has details in their illustrations that make them frame worthy.
Snow Birds at first made me think, “Okay, one to three words per page. And if a complete sentence is not there, I would not be surprised.” Well, that old adage, Do not Judge a Book by it’s Cover is true. There is a plethora of words on each page that come to life in ways I am envious of. Kirsten Hall knows how to spin a tale. In fact, there are those above-mentioned lovely illustrations (that are done by Jenni Desmond and make me equally envious) that are not only covered in bird images and but wonderful poems. Each poem is about the birds we see every day and a few that are a bit more exotic. Each feathered friend has their own poem (some shaped to fit the essence of the bird) and the book is one larger poem. Yet, this reads as a straight-forward story/book and not as if you must stop and take long breaks in-between to find a deeper meaning. An afterwards gives more scientific based facts.
Then there is The Snow Fox. I am not sure if I have read this before (it seems familiar), but if I have this time, I was just amazed by it. Rosemary Shojaie tells a tale of one little fox who loves playing with their friends. But one day, nothing they do will make his friends wake up from their deep sleep. Not even the promise of winter fun. And as our little fox friend explores, he has a great idea of a building a snow fox. Little does he know there is someone else looking for a friend too. The adorable illustrations are softly colored, strongly detailed and would make a great snuggle up and read book.
Snow Birds would work well in a classroom setting for up to third graders (around 9 or 10) and The Snow Fox would work better for the five and up (any place) crowd. Both books should be not only savored for the text, but their art as well and you need to take time reading them both.
