There's No Business Like Snow Business: Snowmen At Work by Caralyn and Mark Buehner

ONE NIGHT I MADE A SNOWMAN,
THEN WENT INSIDE TO SLEEP.
AND WHEN I WOKE, I SAW MORE SNOW
HAD FALLEN SOFT AND DEEP.

I WENT OUTSIDE TO SHOVEL
BUT I SAW THE WALK WAS CLEAR.
NO ONE ELSE WAS OUTSIDE
BUT MY SNOWMAN STANDING NEAR.

Following that thought, the boy drifts into a snowflake flight of fancy: If his snowman shovels snow at night, what other night-shift jobs might snowmen have?

Well, snow removal is a natural, so to speak, shoveling and sweeping snow, operating snow blowers and snowplows. And what kinds of groceries would a snow-grocer sell? Frosted Flakes, frozen peas, and ice cream for sure. And the snowman and snowwoman bakery would specialize in fancy icing and frosted cupcakes. A snow pizza delivery man would bring--frozen pizzas, of course, and a snow dentist drills and fills the patient's smile with new lumps of coal And a snow teacher would be way cool, specializing in polar geography and spelling of Antarctica.

Author Caralyn Buehner and artist Mark Buehner have a lot of fun fantasizing about their snow people's snow business, with Caralyn's simple rhythmic quatrains and Mark's rotund snow workers at their jolly vocations, all with a big lumps of coals showing off their snowy grins. Mark Buehner dresses his frozen folks in bright plaid and striped woolly scarves and hats and even provides hidden figures in his illustrations--a cat, dinosaur, mouse, and even snowshoe rabbit, who appears on one page with two carrots for ears--to add extra panache to his pictures.

Their latest cool tale, Snowmen at Work (Dial Books, 2012), joins the Buehner's earlier snowpeople sagas, Snowmen at Christmas, Snowmen at Night, and Snowmen All Year.

Warm Smiles: The Smiley Snowman by M. Christina Butler

THE SNOWMAN WAS NEARLY FINISHIED. LITTLE BEAR AND SMALL FOX LIFTED A BIG SNOWBALL ONTO HIS HUGE BODY.

"MY TURN!" CRIED FLUFFY BUNNY. "LET ME HELP."

"HERE WE GO," CRIED LITTLE BEAR, LIFTING HIM UP, AND FLUFFY GAVE THE SNOWMAN A GREAT BIG SMILE.

Small Fox, Little Bear, and Fluffy Bunny are so proud of their fine snowman, smiling and sparkling in the late evening light. But when they return the next day, there has been a big change in their new friend.

THE NEXT MORNING THE NEW SNOW SPARKLED BRIGHT, BUT THE SNOWMAN LOOKED SAD AND SHIVERY.

"HE LOOKS COLD TO ME," SAID LITTLE BEAR.

Little Bear offers his scarf, and Fluffy Bunny even drags his own blanket up the hill to wrap the snowman up even more snugly, right up to his pebble eyes. There!

But the next morning finds the snowman looking even sadder!

DRIP! DRIP! DRIP!

M. Christina Butler's The Smiley Snowman (Good Books, 2010) is a humorous look at how three very young friends discover their own questionable version of the laws of thermodynamics as applied to snowmen. The three soon figure out an alternative scientific solution:

"MORE SNOW!"

That and a big group hug restore the snowman's broad smile in this pleasantly cozy little winter's tale, amplified by Tim McNaughton's pretty wintry palette brightened by plenty of sparkles. A nice addition to any snowtime storytime.

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.

'Sno Way! That's Not My Snowman! by Fiona Watt

THAT'S NOT MY SNOWMAN.

HIS SCARF IS TOO FLUFFY.

Fiona Watts' newest Touchy-Feely book, That's Not My Snowman (Usborne Touchy Feely) (Usborne, 2010) is an appealing little addition to this most popular of board books series. As in the others of these top-selling tactile books for the very youngest, the emphasis is on engaging the senses--large, colorful illustrations set spot-art style against bright white backgrounds to focus and delight the eye, and a predictably repetitive text, enlivened by a bit of alliteration to catch the ear of the young listener.

But the main fun lies in the tactile inserts on each page, each of which entice little fingers to feel, scratch, and rub. The cover snowman sports a felt fedora, soft and with just a hint of fuzziness, and his scarf features fluffy red fleece. His big black buttons are bumpy; and his mittens are as fuzzy as only the scrubby side of a dish sponge can be. But the real deal appears on the final page where the right snowman appears with his big, polka-dotted orange nose, appropriately squashy! Now that's a snowman!

That's Not My Snowman (Usborne Touchy Feely) joins such earlier holiday-themed hits by author Watts and illustrator Rachel West as That's Not My Reindeer (Usborne Touchy-Feely Board Books), and That's Not My Santa (Usborne Touchy-Feely) as super seasonal stocking stuffers for the littlest bibliophiles.

Heartwarming: Heart of a Snowman by Mary Kuryla and Eugene Yelchin

Owen knew that at the heart of a snowman is a perfect snowball. To make a perfect snowball, you need the powdery kind of snow that's a touch melty.

"You make the best snowman," says his little sister. "His eyes are looking at me."

"But how will you keep him warm?"

"He does need to be warm," said Owen. "He's cold all the way through."

"But he's warm inside," she said, sure of it.

Owen shapes his snowman with artistry, perfect spheres of snow, finishing it off with his little sister's scarf, old and soft and full of holes, which drapes warmly around the snowman's neck.

But despite his care, Owen's Christmas Eve snowmen always begin to melt by Christmas Day. Determined to discover the cause this time, Owen lies awake to watch, only to see an amazing sight, a strange craft which hovers over his snowman and begins to beam it up. Owen barely manages to grab his snowman as it slides into the vehicle's port, and Owen finds himself among a strange group of animals, all studiously devoted to dissecting his snowman--carrot nose, button eyes, right down to the threads in the scarf and the branches on each snowflake inside, all in the interests of building the perfect snowman. Owen thinks he has at least solved the mystery of why his snowmen always melt on Christmas.

"Everybody thinks the sun melts snowmen, but you're wrong. Snowmen are just brought here."

But, as Owen explains to these scientifically minded rabbits and puffins, the secret lies not in the de-construction and physical perfection of the parts, but at the heart of the snowman himself.

"I'll show you how." Owen scooped up a handful of snow. He held the snow until it got a touch melty from the warmth of his hand. Now the snow rolled nicely into a round ball.

At last the alien creatures get it. Perfect carrots, perfect scarves, perfect coals from the fire, perfect snowflakes are not the secret of the best snowmen.

"When a boy makes a snowman, he gives it a heart," said the puffin. "It gets so warm inside, the snowman can't last."

Back home, Owen pulls his little sister on his sled to the site of his snowman.

"Look, your snowman melted," she said.

"Don't you know it's not the sun that melts the snowman?" said Owen.

"I know," said his sister.

Owen retrieved her scarf. His sister noticed the scarf was woven like new. "That's all right," she said, wrapping it around her. "I'll have it comfy by next Christmas."

A stunningly illustrated wintry tale, Yelchin's and Kuryla's recent Heart of a Snowman (HarperCollins, 2009) is a layered fantasy like Raymond Brigg's modern classic, The Snowman, with which it shares a theme, that the meaning of a snowman is not the impermanent object which is fashioned, but the experience of imagination and artistry, the human touch of creation itself which is what endures. It's a strong and complex theme, possibly too deep for its intended audience to comprehend fully at first reading, but one that will perhaps remain, like the warmth of the human hand which shapes the snowman's core, to warm their understanding in another time.