Making Friends: Snow Friends by Margery Cuyler

It's very early. Everyone in the house is still asleep.... except for Oscar the dog. Oscar smells something different in the air.

SNOW, SNOW, AND MORE SNOW!

Oscar races upstairs with his leash in his mouth to wake his boy Matt, who's awake and cozily reading a book in bed, not ready to go out yet. He pads downstairs barefoot and lets Oscar outside to romp in the snow in the yard for a while. But there's one thing Matt doesn't notice.

THE GATE WAS OPEN!

Oscar is only too happy to take himself for a walk. He spots a rabbit and chases him through the woods until he comes to an icy pond, where he spots a girl walking her dog, Daisy. The girl throws a green ball as far as she can and Oscar and his new friend chase the ball and romp in the snow.

Meanwhile, back home Matt is up and padding downstairs barefoot to let Oscar back in. But Oscar is nowhere in sight. And then Matt sees the open gate.

UH OH!

Matt suits up for the snow and follows the footprints Oscar has left, through the woods and down to the pond where he meets... Oscar and Daisy playing on the ice and a girl coming over the hill.

"THAT'S MY BOY!" barked Oscar.

"THAT'S MY GIRL!" woofed Daisy.

There's a snowday reunion for old friends and their new friends and much snow fun ahead in veteran author, Margery Cuyler's latest picture book, Snow Friends (Henry Holt and Company, 2020). It's a happy surprise meeting for the four of them, portrayed with great warmth and charm by the talented illustrator Will Hillenbrand. This snow story, with just a touch of fantasy, combines snow day fun, new friendships, and a cozy and happy ending for the unexpected friends in a joyful coming together. Says Kirkus Reviews, "There is an infectious exuberance underlying the story . . . A joyous, wintry read."

Duck--And Cover! Duck, Duck, Dinosaur: Snowy Surprise by Kellie George

It's winter!

Today the surprise is...    SNOW!

For Feather (a duck) and Flap (also a duck) and their brother--by another-mother--Spike (NOT a duck; more like a dinosaur actually), the first day of winter has brought them something they've never seen before.

It's white and it's slippery, and of course Spike LOVES it! (Spike loves everything.) It's cold and it's wet, and of course Feather and Flap hate it. Their little webbed feet are in danger of turning blue.

But Brother Spike is gonzo about snow!

Nothing will do but for Spike to urge his little feathered semi-siblings to join him in a frenzy of winter sports. Feather and Flap loyally shiver through rounds of snowball fights, shake through belly-flop sledding, and get goosebumps from ice skating on the frozen pond. If the ducklings had teeth, they would be chattering all through Spike's snowman-building challenge, too. Brrrrrrrr!

Feather and Flap are about to mount a hypothermia mutiny when they spot MAMA, bearing hot cocoa and what looks like a mountain of poofy, downy duck jackets, knitted caps with ear flaps, and woolly-lined snow boots made for chilly webbed feet. Suddenly the ducklings are all go-go for snow!

What a surprise!

Mama knows best when it comes to winter wear, in Kellie George's latest book in her quacky-quirky sort-of-sibling tales in her emergent reader series, Duck, Duck, Dinosaur: Snowy Surprise (My First I Can Read) (Harper, 2017).  In this new book about those off-beat brothers, a sudden snowfall shows the Mama knows best when it comes to bundling up for frosty play. Author George's breezy narrative is easy for new readers to sound out, and artist Oriol Vidal offers her quacky-wacky off-beat illustrations of these unlikely siblings as visual cues to the text. Share this new one with Kellie George's and Orio Vidal's first story of the unlikely family of ducklings and dinosaur, Duck, Duck, Dinosaur. (See review here.)

School Library Journal gives this new one a two wingtips up: "Lots of word repetition combined with a simple but enjoyable plot make this an essential purchase for most beginning-to-read collections."