Snow Avatars: Mouse and Mole: A Winter Wonderland by Wong Herbert Yee

"OPEN UP, MOLE. IT'S ME, MOUSE," CALLED MOUSE.

"RAT!" MUTTERED MOLE. HE ROLLED OUT OF BED LIKE A COCOON, STILL WRAPPED IN HIS BLANKETS....

HE OPENED THE DOOR A CRACK--WHOOOSH! A GUST OF FROSTY AIR NIPPED HIS SNOUT.

"MORNING, MOLE!" SAID MOUSE.

"MORNING, MOUSE," GRUMPED MOLE.
"WHATEVER ARE YOU DOING OUT ON A DAY LIKE THIS?"

Mouse can't wait to sled and skate in the new-fallen snow. To her it is a winter wonderland of trees trimmed with icicles and bushes frosted like cupcakes.

But for Mole it's no dice on the ice! Mole crabbily warns her that she will turn into a mouse-cicle if she is crazy enough to wander around in that frosty wonderland and grumps off to bed again. But Mouse has new boots and a warm coat, and she forges on to fly down the hills and glide over the ice all by herself.

Still, it's lonely without Mole, so she builds a snowman and christens him Sno-Mole. Sneaking back into the snoozing Mole's entryway closet, she chooses one of his warm hats, a scarf, and a pair of mittens, and with a long, pointy icicle for a nose, her Sno-Mole is soon a frosty likeness of Mole himself. With her new snow-friend in tow on her sled, she gives him a tour of her winter wonderland.

Back at home, Mole awakens at last. Bored with his bed, he sneaks a peak outside to see if Mouse is still around. In the distance he spots her skating on the pond and giving a smiling stranger a nice ride on the sled behind her. Mole is suddenly jealous.

"THAT IS NO STRANGER!" HE GULPED.

"MOUSE IS WITH A FRIEND...

AND THAT FRIEND IS NOT ME!"

But best friends have a way of working out such problems, and in Wong Herbert Yee's newest title Mouse and Mole, A Winter Wonderland (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2010) Mole decides that two can play that game, and when Sno-Mouse meets Sno-Mole, it's a friendship just made for a winter wonderland. Author-illustrator Yee has created another cozy seasonal tale of the hyperactive mouse and the sleepy, slow mole, two unlikely friends who find fun and friendship in each addition to the Mouse and Mole series. The author's artwork has a certain quaint appeal, and his homey odd couple stories, reminiscent of Arnold Lobel's classic Frog and Toad series, are just right for the early beginning chapter book reader.

Previous titles in this series are Upstairs Mouse, Downstairs Mole paperback (Mouse and Mole), Abracadabra! Magic with Mouse and Mole, A Brand-New Day with Mouse and Mole (A Mouse and Mole Story), and Mouse and Mole, Fine Feathered Friends.