Snow Friend: Little Mole's Wish by Sang Keun Kim

It's the first snow of the winter, and Little Mole is waiting for the bus home from school. Lonely, he builds a big snowball to keep him company.

"Can I tell you something?" whispered Little Mole. "I just moved here. I don't have any friends."

But when the Mr. Bear's bus arrives, he tells Little Mole in no uncertain terms that he can't bring a big snowball on board.

"Snow's just snow. It'll melt."

Hmmm. Maybe if he sculpts his snowball into a bear, the next bus driver will let him on. But driver Fox scoffs at the idea of a snow bear on a bus and drives on.

Little Mole tries to make his bear look more like him. He sculpts a snow backpack and puts his own knitted cap on his snow bear's head. As it grows dark, the two stand hopefully together at the bus stop. Little Mole makes a wish on a falling star. Finally a kindly driver stops to pick them up.

"Look at you two! You must be freezing."

On the warm bus, Little Mole falls asleep,and when he wakes, he is alone. The driver says he thinks his friend already got off. Sadly Little Mole walks to his house and tells his grandmother about his friend's disappearance.

"I wish I could help," she says.

But in the morning there is a surprise waiting outside for Little Mole, in Sang Keun Kim's tender and sweet story of a snowy day and friendship lost and found, Little Mole's Wish (Schwartz and Wade, 2019).  Kim's soft, muted, and lovely illustrations offer a touch of the magic that friendship brings.

Definitely share this one with Raymond Briggs' magical snow fantasy story, The Snowman.

'S No Way! Bad Kitty Does NOT Like Snow by Nick Bruel

KITTY DOES NOT KNOW

WHAT SNOW IS.

Like all the other savvy cats do, Kitty repairs to her laptop and her favorite search engine--FOOGLE.

What is snow? FOOGLE's display says it's wet, cold, slippery, and soft.

SOFT is good.

Bad Kitty gets all her winter gear on--scarf and knit cap--and ventures out to test FOOGLE's accuracy.

It's cold, all right. It's wet, check. MEH!

Bad Kitty steps out onto the sidewalk.

Whoops! Kitty's keister confirms the bad news. Snow = Slippery.

But--it is soft! It's so soft that Bad Kitty sinks over her head in the snow bank.

ME-OWWW!

It's Phooo-ey on FOOGLE and a big, fat NO to the snow, in Nick Bruel's fast and funny Bad Kitty Does Not Like Snow: Includes Stickers (Roaring Brook Press), as Bad Kitty decides there's no way she's going out again until the snow is gone. Nick Bruel's cartooning is spot on in this one, as our last view of Bad Kitty shows her thawing out in her basket beneath four quilts, wearing her version of a winter hat--a hot water bottle. Bad Kitty is in fine fettle in her own snow story--AND... there are pages of stickers inside.

In Its Own Time! Waiting for Snow by Marsha Diane Arnold

Hedgehog found Badger staring at the sky.
"What are you doing, Badger?"

"Waiting for snow. It's winter and I haven't seen one snowflake."

Hedgehog counsels that he can't rush snow time, but for Badger, snow time is no time to wait patiently. He drags out some pots and pans and drums up some racket.

"Wake up, Sky! It's time for snow!"

No snow follows. Badger's friends come running and try to help.

Rabbit throws pebbles at the sky to poke some snow holes in the clouds. Rocks rain back down, but no snow falls.

Wise Hedgehog advises that things come in their own season, but the snow seekers aren't convinced. Vole suggests his granny's remedy, a snow dance.

They stomped and rocked.

They bopped and boogied.

But no twirling snowflakes show up to dance with them. Hedgehog urges forbearance, reminding his impatient friends that in due time the stars always come out and the sun also rises, but Possum cites an old superstition that sleeping in pajamas put on backwards will make it snow. Badger follows suit, putting his toy bunny and books backwards on his bookshelf for even more snow mojo, and climbs onto the foot of his bed for the night.

But in the morning it's no go for the snow.

Badger's friends try sifting sugar down on Badger's windowsill. But faux snow is no snow either.

There's nothing left for Badger's friends to do but make some fair weather fun for themselves while they wait.

For everything there is a season, in Marsha Diane Arnold's latest, Waiting for Snow (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), in which young snow-lovers learn that snow can come when you least expect it. Waiting is hard for youngsters. "As slow as Christmas" is an old simile that shows how long a wait for an long-anticipated holiday or first snowfall can seem to the youngest weather watchers. Arnold's gently humorous text portrays that eager expectancy, building a bit of suspense as times goes by, and noted artist Renata Liwska (see Deborah Underwood's The Quiet Book) offers softly portrayed, plushy animals in pencil drawings and muted hues that add the proper hush to the hoped-for final snow scene. Things come to those who wait, and Badger is rewarded at last with a chance to roll a huge snowball in the first snowfall of winter.

For a perfect pair of snow stories, share this one with Arnold's Lost. Found.