All You Need for a Snowman - Hardcover

Alice Schertle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 015200789X ISBN 13: 9780152007898

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 2002

Synopsis

Lyrical text and energetic illustrations combine to follow a cheerful group of youngsters as they build a gigantic snowman! 15,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

ALICE SCHERTLE is a well-known poet with many picture books to her credit, including William and Grandpa, which won the Christopher Award. She lives in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.

BARBARA LAVALLEE is best known for illustrating Mama, Do You Love Me?, which won a Golden Kite Award. She lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Reviews

PreSchool-Working cooperatively, the children of this snow-clad chalet village build two huge snowmen. In colorful winter clothing, these plump and squat kids, with their two-toned faces, swarm the white pages as step-by-step they create a snowman so big that readers must turn the page sideways for a full view. The text is bouncy and light, and rolls along like hand-packed snow. A heavy use of the word "except" entices children on to the next page. Finally, they see two snowmen of Paul Bunyan proportions. The skill of both the author and the artist gives this book energy. Toddlers will be thoroughly satisfied.
Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

While this deceptively simple book starring children building a snowman is ultimately about community-how human beings, no matter how small, can help each other create something bigger than themselves-youngsters will find the lilting language and action-filled illustrations to be just plain fun. Schertle's (How Now, Brown Cow?) text deftly describes what goes into making a snowman: "Billions of snowflakes/ piled in a mound,/ pat them/ and pack them/ and roll them/ around/ into one big ball." Her refrain-"That's all you need for a snowman. Except..."-encourages readers to turn the page for each new component. The watercolors, meanwhile, feature children in padded winter jackets who work together. As in childhood, the snowman looms larger than life. As they roll that "one big ball," for example, the children appear to be hugging the edge of a snow-white planet. They place saucer-size bottle caps on the snowman's face-"Surprise!/ Snowman's eyes!"-and add a broom taller than a house. The completed snowman is so huge that the book needs to be turned sideways to view it. Lavallee's illustrations, in the style of her work in Mama, Do You Love Me?, emphasize the children's profiles, shadowing one half of each face as if each character possessed both light and dark skin. A wintertime treat. Ages 2-5.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreS-K. The narrator offers encouraging advice on how to make a snowman, while neighborhood children industriously build two impossibly large ones, decked out with all sorts of winning accessories. "One small snowflake / fluttering down-- / that's all you need / for a snowman. / EXCEPT / two more snowflakes . . . / three flakes . . . four . . . / five . . . six . . . seven thousand . . . / eight million more. " The text flows easily, rhythmic and rhyming, but without ever falling into lockstep predictability. Just as fresh and pleasing as the verse are the watercolor-and-gouache paintings, which capture the playfulness of the subject. Though the children cavort in the snow, they also work seriously and succeed magically in making their enormous snow sculptures. The harmonious colors of their clothing glow against the ever present backdrop of blue-tinged whiteness. Lavallee, whose appealing artwork will be familiar to readers of Mama, Do You Love Me? (1991), creates series of scenes that celebrate the serious pleasures of children at play. A captivating book for snow-themed story hours and a dreamlike manual for would-be builders of snowmen. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 015200789X
• ISBN 13: 9780152007898
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Barbara Lavallee
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32