Snowpeople are popular subjects of wintertime tales. Sometimes, they
just stand where they were created, not doing much of anything. But some
authors afford them the opportunity to have a wonderful time,
especially when humans aren’t looking. One such author is Harriet
Ziefert, who describes a rollicking snowpeople celebration in Snow Party, illustrated by Mark Jones.
The book is written in prose, with a sentence or two per page. The
pictures do most of the talking, with two-page spreads that show off
soft natural landscapes in which snowmen, snowwomen and snowchildren all
bundled up in scarves, hats, cloaks and coats get together for a
jamboree to celebrate the winter solstice, which I suppose would be an
especially big deal to someone made of snow.
The conditions
necessary for such a party are very specific: “When the first snow of
the year falls on the first day of winter, we have a snow party.” I
can’t imagine that happens too often, so on the rare occasion that it
does, the snowpeople are determined to make their event as festive as
possible. Among my favorite elements are a sleigh drawn by caribou and a
snazzy snowman band, not to mention the gorgeous view of the sunset
over the snowy forest.
Most of the credit for this book’s
appeal goes to Jones, who enchants readers with his imaginative visions
of snowmen munching on snowballs and slices of ice, dancing with willing
snowwomen and releasing snowbutterflies into the wind. It’s hard to
believe the biographical tidbit that this Switzerland native has never
built a snowman, because he certainly has a good feel for them, and he
makes it easy to imagine that when a heavy snow blankets the land, it
could be hiding traces of mysterious revelries.
Reminiscent of The Snowman and Snowmen at Night,
this is a story that may cover familiar territory but does so in an
artistic manner. And if I thought that it would attract caribou, I would
definitely make sure to have a snowman in my front yard come the first
day of winter...
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