Where Do They Go?: Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

OVER THE SNOW I GLIDE.

INTO THE WOODS.

As a boy and his dad ski into the winter woods, the boy's eye catches a flash of color as a red squirrel suddenly zips from sight.

"WHERE DID HE GO?"

"UNDER THE SNOW," DAD SAYS.

Dad tells the boy that many animals keep food stores under the snow, like the red squirrel, who can forage for the scent of nuts and berries he has stored in the space between the slightly melted snow and the cold ground below. And he's not the only creature to make use of that cold locker. Rabbits and hares also visit their secret safe under the snow-- and voles, deer mice, shrews, and ground squirrels have their own larders of nuts and fruit with rinds. Some sleep most of the time in semi-hibernation. They snooze in underground nests and tunnels, where they can wake to eat from time to time from their goodies or sleep long days to conserve their internal fat stores.

As the boy glides up the hills and down, he also sees the wakeful predators, watching for any sign of an animal above the snow. Foxes and owls pounce powerfully if their sharp ears detect a sound from below the snow.

Dad shows him where the sharp hooves of deer leave their tracks behind in the snow.

UNDER THE SNOW THE FAT BULLFROGS SLEEP, DREAMING OF WHEN THEY HAD TAILS.

And down below the snow, beavers in their dens dine on carefully selected supplies of pinecones and bark in their warm dining rooms with a view of the water.

In what seems like a cold and deserted landscape as father and son ski through, forest animals are living in places hidden and unseen, finding food in the frozen stillness of winter, in Kate Messner's Over and Under the Snow.

There is much to learn from the careful ways of animals in winter in this primary lesson on animal behavior and survival in Messner's pleasantly plotted book. Artist Christopher Silas Neal's craftily rendered illustrations display the double levels of life in the winter woodlands, useful for meeting the requirements of the animal science curriculum for the primary grades.

"Beautifully rendered," writes Horn Book Magazine in a starred review.

'Tis the Season! Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes

WINTER IS...

... EVERYWHERE.

Spring, summer, and autumn are gradual changes.

But winter?

It comes and changes everything.

Leaves are not pale green, or deep green, or yellow or red. They are not THERE anymore! And water becomes different! It's downright flaky!

IT'S FALLING FROM THE SKY.

IT'S DRIPPING FROM THE ROOFS.

Winter is icicles hanging from roofs and frost covering windows in amazing patterns.

Winter even changes us! It's what makes people put on lots of clothes to keep from frosting up and freezing into icicles. It turns the whole landscape from colorful to white and/or gray. When winter comes, we know it.

WINTER COMES, AND THEN IT STAYS. AND STAYS, AND STAYS....

But as winter-savvy youngsters soon learn, when it goes... it sneaks away, shrinking little by little, leaving behind little trace mementos of where it's been... slushy snow in the shadows and then icy mud, in Kevin Henkes' look at winter, Winter Is Here (Greenwillow Press, 2018).

Even for children who live in climes where winter is less relentless, the season has a certain loveliness during those dark blue evenings when there's a hint of something soft and fluffy and magical in the air. As in the other books in the Caldecott and Newbery-winning Henkes' little Seasons series, In the Middle of Fall and When Spring Comes (see reviews here, and here), for everything there is a season. Henkes' lyrical prose, illustrated perfectly by Laura Dronzek's lovely illustrations of wintry weather, gives even winter's spare scene a certain beauty. Great as seasonal concept books for primary grades, Henkes' and Dronzek's books are just right for their time.

Follow the Winter Trail: Winter Wonderland by Dawn Sirett

FOLLOW THE SPARKLING, SNOWY TRAILS!

An emperor penguin lives in a cold place called Antarctica.

With loops, swirls, zigzags, and familiar shapes, Follow the Trail: Winter Wonderland (Dorling Kindersley, 2017) entices youngsters with assisting adults to trace the track to lead the fluffy penguin chick where he needs to learn to go--down a snowy slope to slide into the sea for his first swimming lesson, along the way providing lessons in penguin parenting styles.

But what's that in the die-cut opening at the top of the page?

It's an Arctic fox, and it is time to trace the fox kits, whose coats turn white in winter to conceal them in their snowy landscapes. Youngsters are encouraged to use their fingers to trace the lumpy, bumpy, glittery, and shiny trails that deliver the young foxes, polar bears, and reindeer who need to learn where and what to do in winter. Plenty of tactile and visual experiences are to be found in this third title in DK's Follow the Trail series, even offering an exit exam in which young readers follow the correct trail to each animal's destination, whether it be the sea, the bears' cave, the foxes' den--or the reindeers' mossy grazing grounds--and perhaps a place with a sleigh that needs pulling?

Others in this charming board book series include Follow the Trail: Farm, Follow the Trail: Trucks, (DK Follow the Trail) Follow the Trail: Baby Animals, Follow the Trail: Baby Dinosaurs, and Follow the Trail: Bugs for preschoolers on the grow and on the go.

Finding Fall! Autumn--A Pop-Up Book by David A. Carter

FALL BRINGS A CHILL IN THE AIR.

COLORFUL LEAVES FLOAT GENTLY FROM TREES.

Autumn is a lively time. The trees are bright and animals are everywhere, stocking up food for wintertime. Birds flock to fly away to their winter habitats, and some can be seen in formation high in the autumn sky.

David A. Carter makes the most of this lively and colorful scene in his newest creation, Autumn: A Pop-Up Book (Seasons Pop-up) (Abrams Appleseed Books, 2017). There are pop-up books and there are pop-up books, and Carter's creations are quality art, done without spurious cuteness, and with design and construction that is a wonder to the eye and mind. The author-illustrator works in the many plants and creatures to be seen in the fall by the watchful eye--from blue jays to bald eagles, quail to porcupines, kestrels to meadowlarks; from corn stalks to shocks of wheat, pomegranates to persimmons, all the lovely things that ease the transition to winter and more are to be found in Carter's fine art illustrations. A

This latest one is a highly recommended purchase for preschoolers just learning about the cycle of the seasons, joining Carter's earlier salute to the season pop-up board books, Winter: A Pop-up Book (Seasons Pop-up), Spring: A Pop-up Book (Seasons Pop-up), and Summer: A Pop-Up Book (Seasons Pop-up).

Heart of the Forest: Tree (A Peek-Through Picture Book) by Britta Teckentrup

In the forest all is still

Gripped by winter's icy chill.

Owl waits, watching in a tree.

No one sees as much as he.

But there's not so much to see in the icy grip of winter. Evergreens huddle, wearing a cap of snow, and foxes tiptoe to and fro.

But soon green shoots appear here and there, peeping above the melting show, and the Owl knows that spring is coming, even before the rabbits venture out of their holes, alert for the frisky foxes.

Spring comes with its magic, covering the forest with a cloak of green.  Birds sing and build nests. The apple tree blooms.

And then summer comes. Little birds fledge. Apples appear and ripen from green to rosy red. Bunnies grow bigger, and the birdies fly all across the sky.

Then trees change color and fall comes sneaking in.

Now it's cooler all around.

Apples tumble to the ground

And at last the leaves fall from the apple tree, too, and once more the tree, with its steadfast owl on guard, watches the season cycle into winter, as snow again piles high about its roots.

All the while the owl is the center of attention, as from his hole in the big tree, he watches the days come and go along with the seasons, in Britta Teckentrup's Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book (Doubleday Books, 2016). With a die-cut home for the feathered sentinel centered in the tree on the cover, the owl appears in the hole in his tree on each page to chronicle the changes in the seasons as they pass. Each animal has his own die-cut opening to reveal his seasonal moves. With highly stylized illustrations, a basic tree with a scattering of leaves and the simple shapes of animals through the cycle of the year, this book is perfect for preschool introduction to the passage of the seasons. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Teckentrup's stylized block-print artwork focuses reader's eyes on the myriad details of the unfolding forest scenes."

What Spots? Lucy Ladybug by Sharon King Chai

LUCY LADYBUG DIDN'T FEEL SHE BELONGED ANYWHERE.

"YOU CAN'T BE ONE OF US," CRIED THE OTHER LADYBUGS. "YOU HAVE NO SPOTS."

They're right! She doesn't! Lucy flies away, all alone.

Soon she sees Fred Frog and admires his beautiful green spots.

"YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, TOO," SAYS FRED. "HAVE ONE OF MINE!"

With one green spot, Lucy flies away, feeling better.

Then in the fall she sees Carla Caterpillar and admires her lovely golden spots, and Carla returns the compliment and contributes a gold spot for Lucy's carapace. Lucy loves her twin spots.

But that winter Lucy spots Felicity Fish, leaping from the icy lake and showing off her sparkling blue spots. She cooperates in donating one dazzling blue dot to Lucy's collection.

And when spring has sprung, Lucy can't help but comment on Bella Bird's breast, decorated by dazzling white speckles. Bella obliges by offering Lucy a sample spot!

LUCY LADYBUG WAS SO HAPPY! FOUR SPOTS!

Proudly Lucy spreads her wings and proudly gets ready to come in for a landing at opening day to show off her big bright beautifully colored spots! But... Wait! All the other ladybugs have black spots. Is she still the odd ladybug out?

But in Sharon King Chai's Lucy Ladybug (Random House, 2016), the author-illustrator saves the best for last, a big, bold and bright four-page gatefold in which Lucy Ladybug proudly proclaims...

BEING DIFFERENT IS ACTUALLY ... A GOOD THING!

In a super-sweet story of the virtue of being unique, Chai manages to work in mini-lessons in color recognition, numbers, and the cycle of the seasons, all within an easy-going little parable that salutes individuality along with the value of getting by with a little help from your friends.

Turn, Turn, Turn! : Fall Leaves by Loretta Holland

WHEN SUMMER LEAVES. . .

BIRDS LEAVE

APPLES FALL

And when the sun leaves, we take notice!

As earth rolls on in its annual revolution, the sun smiles on the southern hemisphere. Folks on the northern half notice that things are changing relentlessly in another direction.

Loretta Holland's forthcoming Fall Leaves (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) makes artful use of wordplay and page design to show the inexorable changing of the seasons.

Playing upon the double meanings of the words fall and leaves, the author describes the ways of autumn. Flowers, birds, and, slowly but implacably, the sun, too, leave us behind in a chilling landscape, albeit one made more jolly by the colors of the falling leaves and the richness of the harvest. Daytimes grow short, rain falls on the fallen leaves, and the world seems to be trying to hold on to its last warm breath. And then....

TEMPERATURE FALLS

SNOW FALLS

As things move inexorably toward winter, the movement of Elly McKay's lustrous illustrations is from left to right, as, with each page turn, her palette darkens from bright yellows, oranges, and greens to ambers, ochers and browns, until at last, as fall itself leaves the scene, the colors are the grays and blues, lavenders and whites of winter. Her young autumnal time travelers, a boy and girl, also constantly in motion, run, bike, boat, jump, dash, and lastly sled in the snow, also moving left to right through the pages, emphasizing the measured march of earth-time from season to season.

Author Holland's narrative pages offer two forms of text: her evocative words feature the dual meanings of fall and leaves, in large capital letters, whereas in a smaller font she offers the scientific rationale behind what is going on in the cycling of the seasons. Since she offers none of the usual visual diagrams of sun and earth, the book is best read by children who already understand how earth's revolution on its tilted axis causes seasonal changes, while the vivid child-pleasing illustrations connect planetary motion to the palpable experiences of calendar cycles with considerable visual and emotion impact; as the pages turn, so does the world.

No Place Like Home: Nest by Jorey Hurley

Those iconic signs of spring, a nesting pair of robins have woven grasses into the age-old basket shape just as the sun begins to waken the bare trees from their winter rest.

nest

The story begins with the father and mother robin gazing into the nest where they see one robin's-egg-blue egg. The mother settles down to shelter her egg on the nest and the dad flies off to find food and a nearby branch where he can keep watch.

As leaves and blooms peep out, the parent birds know that soon the baby will hatch and after a frenzy of feeding, he will grow feathers and the speckled orange breast of the juvenile. As he gets stronger, he can jump from the nest and from limb to limb in his tree, as Mom and Dad keep a watchful eye, knowing that soon he will fly on his own.

Soon their tree is filled with red berries and the robins feast on them, until they stop to stare in surprise--at a purple kite rising above their tree.

Soon the leaves change colors, the wind begins to blow, and the three robins snuggle together on their perch to sleep. And when they awake, the fledgling dares to soar down to the ground to explore for worms. The older robins watch, somehow seeming to know that their young one will meet another young robin and that when spring returns again, they, too, will build another nest in their tree.

Jorey Hurley's debut picture book, Nest (Simon & Schuster, 2014), uses only thirteen words, one for each two-page spread, to tell the familiar story of the robins' life cycle and the changing seasons. Hurley's illustrations are striking--with a strong but burnished palette in simple line drawings and flat color laid against a matte-white background. Her robins are realistic, without a trace of cartooning or anthropomorphism, but also iconic, without shading or detailing, and her tree is also simple and stylized without losing any of its tree-ness. Preschoolers will be drawn into the little drama as the egg becomes chick and the chick becomes fledgling and then an adult, and emergent readers will have plenty of context to help them read the natural and easy text on their own. The author adds an appendix with extra information about nesting. For classroom units, read this one as an introduction to Rita Gray's delightful Have You Heard the Nesting Bird?

School Library Journal says,"Nest's beauty and originality will stand up to countless re-readings."

Are We There Yet? Is This Panama? A Migration Story by Jan Thornhill

WHEN SAMMY WOKE UP, HIS TOES WERE COLDER THAN THEY'D EVER BEEN BEFORE. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS STILL AUGUST, FROST TWINKLED AND SPARKLED ON EVERY LEAF OF HIS HOME NEAR THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.

SAMMY SHIVERED, PARTLY BECAUSE HE WAS COLD AND PARTLY BECAUSE HE WAS EXCITED. IF IT WAS THIS COLD, IT MUST BE TIME FOR HIM TO MAKE HIS FIRST MIGRATION TO PANAMA.

Fledgling Sammy wakes with the nagging feeling he's supposed to be somewhere else. Maybe Panama, where all the Wilson warblers go to winter? But as he looks around and sees no one of his flock, he realizes that ship has sailed!

It's definitely catch-up time for Sammy. Ptarmigan is no help in the GPS department, pointing out that he's not an insect eater and plans to winter over with the help of his white feathers which make him invisible in the frost and snow. But a passing caribou, heading for the lichen-covered forest floors further south, offers an observation.

"I DON'T LIKE LICHENS." SAID SAMMY. "I LIKE INSECTS."

"THEN YOU'D BETTER KEEP GOING. I HAVEN'T SEEN AN INSECT ALL DAY!"

But where exactly is Panama? Sammy hitches a ride with some sandhill cranes headed toward Texas who show him the landmarks they use to find their way. Then Sammy meets up with hundreds of dragonflies flying south along the coast, but speedy Sammy soon leaves them behind. Finally Sammy meets up with a cousin, a redstart warbler.

"IS THIS PANAMA?" HE ASKS.

"DON'T I WISH!" TWITTERED THE REDSTART.

His cousin invites him along on a night flight and shows him how to fly by the stars, but when the flock flaps over the lights of a huge city, the novice Sammy gets confused and crash lands into the window of a skyscraper. He recovers quickly, but the warblers are gone and he has to take advice from a strange group of fellow travelers--monarch butterflies, humpback whales, and even a Hudsonian godwit on his way to Patagonia--all of them headed south but none of them exactly bound for Panama. But island-hopping across the Bahamas with a flock of strangers, he heads across a short stretch of ocean, and when they stop to look for food, Sammy feels so tired that, hungry as he is after three weeks on the wing, he hasn't the heart even to hop around. But then Sammy gets a funny feeling about this place.

SAMMY SUDDENLY FELT ALL QUIVERY INSIDE.

Sammy had finally found his home away from home, in Jan Thornhill's Is This Panama?: A Migration Story (OwlKids Books, 2013). Thornhill manages to build quite a bit of page-turning tension into her story of Sammy the solitary wanderer, but the main premise of the book is the wondrous ways of animal migration. In this autumn-centered concept book each animal encountered reveals his own migratory reason and destination as they try to help Sammy find his own. Illustrator Soyeon Kim's artwork is picture perfect, using glowing full color nature paintings, occasionally interspersed with monochromatic drawings, especially in the appealing illustration of the weary Sammy hopping a lift on a slightly out-of-the-way humpback, riding high on the whale's big head.

Appended are color-illustrated thumbnails of the various animals covered, with sepia-tones assorted warblers decorating the endpapers, a map of the warbler clans and Sammy's offbeat routes, and a detailed explanation of "How Animals Migrate," using the sun, stars, landmarks, magnetic fields, and sense of smell for further information and review, making this little book a dandy read-aloud and resource choice for units on animal migration, a story told from the viewpoint of a doughty little hero who does what has to be done and shares his life's journey with his readers. Booklist loves this primary concept book, saying, "Kim’s illustrations, a mix of line drawings, paintings, and cut paper collage, are full of movement, color, and texture, offering up wonderfully varied landscapes and scenes that suggest three dimensions. Together, the text and images help make sense of a few of nature’s curiosities. A truly educational journey."

Both Sides Now: Inside Outside by Lizi Boyd

Lizi Boyd's Inside Outside (Chronicle Books, 2013) is a book that is much more than it seems at first glance.

Using brown butcher paper as her medium, Boyd opens with a plain house, a small boy seen through the window as a snowman stands guard just outside, while inside he works, intent upon planting seedlings for spring. Pictures on the wall show plants and trees which foreshadow the season to come.  The seasons change outside. as the boy moves out and then back into the house. Trees leaf out, flowers comes up and bloom, and birds appear in the trees, nesting and then feeding their babies.

Accompanied by his constant companions, a black dog and two mice who get on with their own parallel lives, unmindful of the events around them, the boy flies his kite in spring, finds a turtle in the warming pond, tends his garden, and fills his wading pool for the dog and cat to enjoy.

The scenes shift from inside to outside and back again, each move prefigured by the other, with the boy building a boat inside while sailboats float in pictures on the wall, and takes it outside to sail it on the pond while the turtle and dog watch from his beach towel. Fall comes, suggested first by the boy's paintings of autumn trees on the walls and carried outside as colored leaves float down from the trees and birds fly, fleeing south from approaching winter.

At last it is winter outside again, and the boy is seen through the windows, decorating a little evergreen inside, as snow falls on his snowman outside.

Cleverly placed die-cut rectanglar windows give little readers a chance to predict what comes next in this endlessly inventive essay on the seasons. It will take many look-throughs to take in all that is going on in Inside Outside. This seemingly simple little wordless story book has surprises and much to observe for youngsters just learning to "read" a picture book through its illustrations.

"... creative genius at work," says Kirkus Reviews.