A Winter's Tale: Once Upon A Winter's Day by Liza Woodruff

MILO WAS LOOKING FOR A STORY, BUT HIS MOTHER WAS BUSY.

"WHY DON'T YOU GO PLAY IN THE SNOW?" SHE ASKED.

MILO DIDN'T WANT TO PLAY IN SNOW. HE WANTED A STORY!

But he dutifully bundled up and, leaving angry, stomping tracks behind him, walked to the bird feeder, where he notices some tiny mouse footprints under it.

WOULD THE MOUSE HAVE A STORY TO TELL?

Intrigued, Milo follows the tracks to a winterberry bush with no berries, but a single feather. Supposing the mouse had eaten all the berries, Milo moved on, raising a flock of cardinals, one of which drops a winterberry, proving that the mouse is not the only one who striped the bush of its summer fruit. Walking into the woods, Milo discovers some cut branches underneath an evergreen where he spots two porcupines happily crunching the hemlock needles. Still tracking the mouse prints, Milo finds a patch of dirt clogs mixed with snow. Something had been digging there, and just ahead he comes upon a group of deer, munching acorns that had been under the snow. Trudging on, Milo spots a slide made by otters, sledding downhill to the creek. Following the mouse trail a little further, Milo comes upon a worrying scene. The mouse tracks end in a patch of disturbed snow and Milo spots a swooping hawk, claws extended, grasping at something scuttling under a tree.

Is that the end of the mouse's story? And then he hears his mother calling him to dinner. DRAT! But then... he happily spots some tiny tracks disappearing down a deep hole.

MILO FOLLOWED HIS TRACKS BACK HOME.

And after supper, his mom finally offers to read him some stories.

MILO SHOOK HIS HEAD. "THIS TIME I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU," HE SAID.

Liza Woodruff's Once Upon a Winter Day (Holiday House, 2020) is a winter's tale, a snowy Sherlock mystery, and a fine nature walk all in one, in which Milo's trek offers much about how animals survive in winter, with a beautifully illustrated happy ending for the deer mouse in a two-page spread showing the mouse trekking through a tunnel and up into a cozy nest in the woodpile. With endpapers that reveal the names of the animals Milo encounters, this story is perfect for preschool and primary grade studies of animal adaptation to the season, with an attentive nature detective as main character. Says Horn Book's starred review, "Words and pictures work together to tell a taut and just-right-for-the-audience suspenseful tale."

Just Call Me Dumb Cluck! Duck Is Stuck by Zoubida Mounssin

Duck's wings are tired. It's been a long flight.

He lands on the icy lake for a bit of respite. In no time he falls asleep, deeply asleep. And when he wakes up...

DUCK IS STUCK.

He flops his feet. He flaps his wings. No go! Duck is stuck in the frozen pond.

Uh-Oh! It wouldn't be so bad to get stuck in the muck. Ducks love swamps and swamps are mucky places. It's not so unusual to be stuck in a truck. Trucks break down a lot. But... a duck stuck in the ice?

Snowflake the rabbit comes along and is curious.

"HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET INTO THAT SITUATION?"

This is embarrassing. Seriously.

Duck has to explain the obvious and ask a bunny for help. Snowflake obliges, with vigorous thumping from her fairly impressive back feet. No cracks.

Blackbird lands on the ice with the same question. He pecks at the ice. Not a dent!

Next the now familiar question comes from the Moses the Moose. Moses has four big hooves, but he's afraid he'll crack the ice and then they'll all fall in the drink! Who can help?

Just then a little fish named Rachel observes the problem from the underside of the ice where Duck's feet are quietly turning blue. And she knows what to do! Quickly she swims to the lodge of the best animal plumber in the pond--Bert the beaver!

And Bert the Beaver's got just the tool for the job. He applies his big wide tail to the problem.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

CRACK!

And Duck finally catches a break, in Zoubida Mounssin's Duck Is Stuck (Clavis, 2018). Mounssin's critter characters deliver their repetitious lines in perfect deadpan style, while illustrator Pascale Moutte-Baur provides the humor on her pages divided by the ice, with the mortified Duck shown above and below. Her clever illustrations have the look of paper collage and utilize both split page and varying perspectives to heighten the theme of crowd-sourcing cooperation! Three cheers for teamwork!

What Winter's Nap? A Loud Winter's Nap by Katy Hudson

TORTOISE HAD JUST SNUGGLED IN FOR A LONG WINTER'S NAP.

Bears aren't the only ones who hibernate in winter, you know. But when Tortoise hangs his DO NOT DISTURB UNTIL SPRING, sign he overlooks another posting lower down on the tree.

His Winter Nap To Do List, dutifully checked off, Tortoise has just settled down for a long... well, you know... when of all people--Robin, that habitual harbinger of spring--appears to invite him to the winter woods singing class. Why isn't he down South already? And since when did robins need singing lessons?

Well, tortoises definitely DON'T!

"NO!" GRUMBLED TORTOISE. "I WAS TRYING TO SLEEP! TORTOISES DON'T LIKE WINTER!"

Tortoise grumpily packs up and heads out of earshot of all the Fa, La, La, La, Las, puts up his tent, and crawls inside. But Robin is determined that Tortoise is going to see what is welcome and wonderful about winter. How about joining him in an ice sculpture or two, he chirps? Tortoise repeats his mantra and moves off to hang his hammock between two snow-laden saplings when Squirrel appears to invite him to join in a snowball fight. No, and NO again!

"TORTOISES DON'T LIKE WINTER. THEY JUST DON'T!"

Tortoise moves again, this time with a tall ladder, and ascends to the top of a tall tree to start his long-delayed winter hibernation.

But he forgets about Beaver, always busy felling trees in the forest, and his arboreal bed comes down with the rest of the tree.

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH. KERPLUNK!

Is there no rest for the weary anywhere in these woods?

No one is going to bet that Tortoise's hibernation happens this winter, in Katy Hudson's new story of the season, A Loud Winter's Nap (Capstone Books, 2017). Hudson, the author of the Caldecott Honor-winning Too Many Carrots, has a winning wintry picture book with her latest, with her own illustrations of the carrot-swiping critters in her first book back again in this slapstick-funny story of an all-unwilling wide-awake tortoise in winter. Kids will be chiming in on Tortoise's oft-repeated lament, and they will cheer at the rousing ending in which Tortoise scores in a somnolent and impromptu slalom down the slopes after all. It takes all kinds, and just as there are two kinds of people--winter welcomers and winter avoiders--Hudson's little forest animals stand in as winsomely annoying snow day lovers in this delightful winter's tale.

Share this new one with Jane Yolen's classic Bear Snores On (The Bear Books), and for more winter animal lore, her Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep (see review here).

Where Have All The Colors Gone? Arctic White by Danna Smith

WHEN YOU LIVE IN THE ARCTIC ALL WINTER, EVERYTHING IS A SHADE OF WHITE.

THE BLUE WHITE OF THE TUNDRA,

THE YELLOW-WHITE OF THE POLAR BEAR,

THE SILVER-WHITE OF THE ARCTIC FOX.

Arctic days are as dark as the night. The only light, from the stars and the moon, is white, too.

True, the girl's parka is brown, her grandfather's sled is brown, and so is her dog. But in the winter darkness, they hardly count as color.

SOMETIMES WHEN YOU WISH ON A STAR FOR MORE COLOR, YOU ONLY GET GRAY,

AND GRAY IS A SHADE OF WHITE.

But one day there is a sort of hum in the air. Grandfather promises something golden, the color of hope. The girl is intrigued as that night he leads the whole family across the tundra to a special spot. Everyone seems quietly excited, and the girl wonders what Grandfather means by his promise. He tells her mysteriously

"YOU NEED THE DARK TO SEE..."

And with first a flash of gold, and then orange and red, then blue and green, the aurora borealis fills the sky with more color than she has ever seen, with just enough light to see the pleased twinkle in her grandfather's eyes.

Danna Smith's Arctic White (Harper, 2015) is set in the far north, but its theme is universal. All peoples who know the long black nights of winter experience some yearning for the light and colors of summer. We gather to share winter festivals, decorating with colored lights that remind us that, as Keats put it, "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" Author Smith gives few details about her Arctic family, but like all of us, they share hope, warmth, and pleasure at the experience of the warmth and colors of the Arctic sky.

Smith's lean and lyrical lines draw us into the simple story, and the artwork of Lee White adds much to the text, lovely in its stark, straight lines and many shades of white, punctuated by the joyous swirls of color from the sky at the ending. With a theme of longing and light that all ages will feel, this book is also wonderful for classroom units on color to show the power of white, which is, after all, the true color of light, and that the blackest of nights can make colors more dazzling.