'S No Day Like a Snow Day: Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams

As an introduction to the wonders of winter snowfall, Carl Sams' and Jean Stoick's Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy (Nature) is a lyrical experience for young children. With minimal but highly effective use of bits of color, the photographs show off the snow-filled woods and the wintering animals perfectly.

"The snowflakes are resting after their twisting, twirling dance through the crisp night air.... Daybreak comes softly, moving through the woods.

The birds were the first to notice. 'STRANGER IN THE WOODS, STRANGER IN THE WOODS,' the blue jays cawed a warning."

A doe and her speckled fawn follow the "coo-coo" of the dove and the "who-whoo of the great grey owl, joined by a fearless buck and muskrat, a fearful rabbit and porcupine, and a perky chick-a-dee, who scouts ahead and spies a spot of red, the jaunty cap of a snowman standing inexplicably alone among the pines. Resting in the folds of his cap are seeds and nuts for the small animals and around his feet is corn for the deer. The doe bravely reaches up to eat the snowman's carrot nose, just as the animals glimpse a dropped mitten further ahead in the woods. "Could it be? There's more than one stranger in the woods?" they wonder.

Peeping from the evergreens, of course, we see two young children, enjoying the results of their work. When the animals have eaten enough and gone away, the children emerge to scatter more food. "We will feed them until the trees grow new leaves," they whisper as they head for home. The final picture page shows a hidden fawn turning the tables and spying upon the children refilling the snowman's hat with seeds. THE END is spelled out on the snow in carrots as one retreating child giggles, "I think they liked the carrots best." "A "Recipe for a Snowman" is appended.

The fun of constructing a unexpected treat for the snowbound animals will surprise and delight children who hear this story. Related books by Sams and Stoick are Lost In The Woods: A Photographic Fantasy and the wonderful autumn-to-winter book First Snow in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy. Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy (Nature) is also available as the original award-winning film Stranger in the Woods: The Movie.