Snow: (Caldecott Honor Book)

This is a Caldecott Honor Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Booklist Editors’ Choice and one of many award winning children’s books by acclaimed American children’s book author and illustrator Uri Shulevitz. It is a lyrical telling of the beginning to end of a snow storm through the eyes of a young child. It reminds me of Charlotte Zolotow’s Caldecott Honor Book “the Storm Book”. Both are excellent and beautifully illustrated. Unfortunately Uri Shulevitz died in February of 2025. He was 89 years old. He was born in Poland and came to America during WWII to escape the Nazis.

Bought this book purely for the illustrations. About 40 years ago, I'd run across and bought (even though I really couldn't afford to buy books then, gave up eating for a week to buy the book) his Dawn book because it was so beautiful. I still have it and look at it every so often when I need serenity and inspiration. I love the illustrations in this book too. They're simple in their complexity, complex in their simplicity? You don't really need to read the limited text either, the pictures tell the story (and it's also fun to make up your own story based on the pictures). It's a beautiful book and I don't even remember now being a child (that's how old I am).

Shulewitz has a marvelously whimsical way of telling a story and a loving sympathy with children. His fanciful illustrations and minimal story tell it all. A small boy and his dog jump with excitement at the first snow flake only to be put down by several adults who are oblivious to the coming of a snow storm in the air. even as the snow begins to pile up. We feel the excitement of the boy and his dog and are amused by the adult characters. Even small children will enjoy this book and some older ones too.

Lovely artwork and short sentences make this a great book for beginning readers. There is a charm to the broken English style of sentence construction that makes it an exotic look at a word which hovers on the fantastical with each flake that falls. Lyrical and haunting images and quirky faces and come-to-life fairytale creatures at the end provides a charming tale of the power of a child to see the possible when you dream for a snow storm.

I am a preschool teacher and have loved reading this story to my students, especially during the first big snow of the year. The paintings are simple and interesting, as is the story itself. Audio books are great for switching things up a bit during storytime, and they are also ways for the students to experience the stories themselves at a reading center. I have found this particular story's audio reading to be very calming for my students - the reading by Sean Schemmel is very pleasant and quiet, as is the background music, complimenting the feel of softly falling snow covering the gray city in a blanket of white. A great purchase for a classroom or family library.

This was a special book that I read to my grandson every winter. Misplaced the original so had to get another one because the story is just a simple but touching day of snow in the life of a boy and his dog. This deserved the honor especially since the stuff out there now is mostly garbage. That ALA renaming the Laura Invalid Wilder award shows how low literature has fallen for children so society's fringe are accommodated. Even Dr. Seuse is now a bad guy. Parents seem to have abandoned their children's literacy for the cell phone to the detriment of childhood education.

This book is right up there with Goodnight Moon in my opinion.

Fun writing and pictures. I got this book for my 5 year old and she took to it right away. The witty text especially was fun for her. The pictures are endearing and works for younger readers as well.