Snow Sculptures! Ladybug Girl and the Big Snow by Jacky Davis

"It's magic outside, Bingo!" whispers Lulu. "Everything is covered with snow!"

It's not just a little snow--it's a BIG snow, one that transforms the outside world into a new view. Lulu quickly pulls on her snow gear--long johns, snow pants, snow jacket, and boots. But because she is Ladybug Girl, she also puts on her red tutu, her black-spotted wings, and her earmuffs with red antennae.With so many puffy clothes, it's hard to walk in the deep snow.

But that won't stop Ladybug Girl!

The snow cover makes all the low bushes look like snow cakes. Lulu and her Basset hound Bingo taste them. Not bad! The few yellow leaves on the silver maples tinkle in the wind like little bells. The bright sun makes her brother's snowman sparkle like it's sprinkled with glitter.

The fir trees look like Snow Giants! She must stop them before they eat all the snow cakes!

Inspired by her brother's snowman, Ladybug Girl tries to build a snow castle, but the powdery snow won't stick together and her castle crumbles into a ruin. Even Ladybug Girl's antennae are covered in snow! Hmmmph! Everything is so hard in the snow! Lulu is consternated.

"Oh, I give up!"

But then she spots the snow hill and decides to climb to the top. Her boots sink deep into the snow. She's up to her tutu in the stuff!

But she's not just Lulu. She's Ladybug Girl, and Ladybug Girl can do anything!

With strong, determined steps Lulu climbs to the top of the hill. From there she notices that her crumbled castle looks like a snow sculpture of her dog Bingo. Then Ladybug Girl has a great idea! Rounding up her brother, Lulu conscripts him to sculpt snow animals--a snow bear, a snow reindeer, a snow camel, a snow lion, even a snow gorilla!

Now, feeling soggy and chilly, Lulu and her brother go inside to dry out and drink cocoa by the fire, recalling their snow fun

"Snow really is magic!"

In her Ladybug Girl and the Big Snow (Penguin Group), illustrated by David Soman's lovely snow scenes. Author Jackie Davis skillfully manages to incorporate the qualities of independence, perseverance, creativity, and cooperation into a joyous story of a day of play in the snow. Pair this one with Ezra Jack Keats' classic The Snowy Day.

Having a Go at the Snow: Claude on the Slopes by Alex T. Smith

At 112 Waggy Avenue, there lives a small plump dog who wears shoes, a sweater, and a rather nifty beret. This dog is called Claude, who lives with Mr. and Mrs. Shinyshoes, and the best pal in the world, Sir Bobblysock, a sock.

Every day after Mr. and Mrs. Shinyshoes have gone to work, Claude pops on his beret and goes on an adventure with Sir Bobblysock.

But although Claude awakes one morning, feeling frisky, when he steps out on the front porch of 112 Waggy Avenue, he and Sir Bobblysock slip all the way across the street.

It was snow!

Claude is amazed to see cross-country skiers zipping by and skiing downhill. People without skis seem to be sledding on tea trays. It looks like such fun that Claude reaches inside his unusual beret and pulls out a elegant tea set on a tea tray.

Claude likes zipping down hills and feeling the wind in his ears.

But just as Claude and Sir Bobblysock are beginning to feel a bit of belly rumbling and are looking around for a hot cocoa stand, they see a sign:

SNOWMAN COMPETITION
Fabulous Prizes

Being quite an artistic sort of sock, Sir Bobblysock signs up and wins the grand prize. Claude proudly cheers as loud as he can, using his OUTDOOR VOICE, so loud that he starts a small avalanche of snow!

He is accosted by uniformed gentleman named Sidney Snood, a Mountain Rescue Ranger, who asks him to please speak quietly and offers to teach Claude how to ski--quietly. But when Claude climbs to make his first downhill run from the top of the mountain peak, will he remember not to use his OUTSIDE VOICE?

Claude the dog is up to his usual absurd adventures, in Claude on the Slopes (Peachtree Publishing). Author-illustrator Alex T. Smith makes the most of his quirky canine hero in another of his improbable episodes starring the elegant pooch with a magical bottomless beret and and his loyal sidekick, a sock. For more of Claude, see the companion book Claude At the Beach and Claude in the City.

Snow Queen (er, KING): King Alice by Matthew Cordell

GOOD MORNING, SIR DAD!

It's not a sled-and-snowball, snow-for-Christmas snow day. It's an icy, slippy, sloshy, slushy snow day where everyone has to stay inside.

It's a unscheduled official pajama day for everyone in the family--Burpy Baby, Frumpy Bun-on-Top-of-Head Mom, and, of course, Grizzled, Itchy, Yawny Dad, who does not want a sparkly-strawberry cupcake party breakfast with Queen King Alice (because he's been to that party and cleaned up after it). He also passes on another Super-Duper Make Dad Prettyday. (Don't ask.)

Then King Alice has a brainstorm.

"Let's make...a... book! About King Alice the First! A-a-a-n-d the royal brave knights!"

Dad is anointed as Royal Illustrator. But King Alice's inspiration fails after their royal breakfast, a tad messy around the mouth, especially Burpy Baby's, so the King declares...The End.

Dad's off the hook until she re-imagines the knights sipping at a PRINCESS TEA PARTY. All the knights are seated at their Round Table. It's all royal fun, until....

"Okay. I'm bored now."

King Alice decrees Chapter 2 is done with a walk away. Dad exhales, until...

"Chapter 5!" King Alice suddenly announced.

"What happened to chapters 3 and 4?" Dad wondered pointlessly.

After Chapter 5 (Pirate Party), King Alice is too fatigued to be creative and repairs to her television-viewing throne, where her imaginative juices are restored by an episode starring that ever-popular mythical, mystical beast, and the King declares there will be a ...

UNICORN PARTY!

"STAMPEDE!

In the ensuing melee', Dad sustains a unicorn horn wound, and King Alice is banished to the Time-Out Throne, with only the cat as her equerry, until she issues a repentant proclamation.

"I am so, so, so, so, so sorry I bonked you with my unicorn, Daddy. You are funny and nice and you draw good... and will you play with me now, Daddy?"

And after a c-a-a-l-m-down dinner and bath for Burpy Baby and the King, all's well that smell's well, and with yet more snow falling outside the windows, the weary head who wears the crown is almost drowsing off, when an IDEA comes for tomorrow....

SEQUEL!

It's a funny and familiar tale of snowed-in togetherness, in his latest, King Alice (Feiwel and Friends, 2018) with Matthew Cordell's familiar scratchy-styled comic illustrations capturing the mess and moods of family life in a sweet and loving snow day in the life of a young family. Cordell, 2018 Caldecott Medal winner for Wolf in the Snow (see review here), admits to a fondness for stories about family and an affinity for the sketchy illustrative styles of Jules Feiffer, William Steig, and Quentin Blake, and this style is well suited for the untidy saga of King Alice, who inexplicably harps on neatness and definitely dotes on her daddy. Cordell's stories have insight and delightfully detailed illustrations that will give youngsters a lot to seek and discover on each busy page.

Says Publishers Weekly, "Readers will treasure their time with Alice's father, who allows his daughter to be exactly who she is, and King Alice, who leads her family on adventures even when they don't leave the house."

's No Day in the Park! Bunny Slopes by Claudia Rueda

Hello?

Want to join me for a ski day?

But where's the snow? Could you please ((SHAKE)) the book?

From page one, this bunny takes charge, even though only the tip of his red scarf and skis are in sight on page right. He exhorts us to shake the snow right out of the clouds and onto the slopes.

Whoa! Too much snow.

Can you tap tap tap on the top of the book?

Okay. That leveled out that mound of snow, level being the operant word here. But skiing requires some slope.

Now maybe you can help me go downhill. Can you ((TILT)) the book to your right?

That's not exactly downhill. Maybe you could ((TILT)) the book a bit more?

CARROTS! What fun!

But this bossy bunny is not done with us, dear reader. He manages to ski himself over a cliff and to land tangled upside down in a tree (requiring reading the text upside down, and more shaking is in order to get him back on his downhill run.)

But... But ... Bunny! Look out for that hole!

Oh, WHEW! He straddled it. Perfect. Now off the ski jump!

LOOK OUT! There's another hole ahead!

AAAAAaaaaaGH!

It's down the rabbit hole for sure this time.

(Hey, hasn't that book already been written?)

Yes, but this is not it, in Claudia Rueda's latest, Bunny Slopes (Chronicle Books, 2016), and in this day of the metabook, we know what we must do to, er, advance the plot, as we say. In this day, post-Tullett's Press Here, we know we have to follow directions to do our part to get this little ski bunny safe and sound to his apres-ski happy ending, where down the second die-cut rabbit hole means he lands safe in the family burrow with a cozy cup of hot chocolate (and one for us, too) waiting from Mom. Author-illustrator Rueda captures just the right tone for her dictatorial snow bunny, and her sweet and snowy illustrations have plenty of of kid appeal, at least for that initial downhill run. A good book for that midwinter snow-time bookshelf.

Says Kirkus Reviews, "...her bunny is adorably expressive, her scenes are simple and easy to read, and that gutter cliff is a masterstroke of design."