Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5^-7. In simple rhymes and soothingly rhythmic language, common animals describe, in succession, their responses to falling snow: " `I creep into the house,' / says the mouse. / Cold winds blow / when it starts to snow." From birds and water dwellers to farm and forest animals, each creature has characteristic places to go and things to do. After the bear declares, "Time to sleep," a wordless, mostly white spread marks a change of tone and creates a quietness, and a child, who has already put in occasional background appearances, emerges and bursts out to play with an exuberant "Hip Hip Hurray!" Matje, a French illustrator, makes his American debut with uncluttered gouache scenes of simply drawn creatures, seen through a mild, fluffy snowfall. Although the text is longer here, the mood and simplicity of expression recall Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day (1962) and Ruth Krauss' The Happy Day (1949). --John Peters
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this engaging picture book about the chain of events set in motion by a snowfall, a cluster of animals respond in rhyme to a boy's question: "What if it starts to snow? What do you do? Where do you go?" Gershator (Bread Is for Eating) writes with a simple, lilting eloquence, using the book's title as an incantatory closing refrain to each creature's response: " `The water is chilly,' says the fish./ `It's best to lie low.'/ Swish, shh, shh/ when it starts to snow." Once every animal has retreated to its proper refuge, a wordless spread of the boy peering out from among a stand of trees at a blanket of white mimics the silence that falls along with the snow. In the final pages, the boy emerges from his comfy bedroom to play ("Hip hip hurray!"). French artist Matje inventively renders the winter sky in the color of hot chocolate tinted with whipped cream, a perfect evocation of both the coziness and chill of a snowy day. This striking visual element provides the backdrop for his boldly graphic characterizations: a crow is formed on a simple S-curve, a rooster and hen have the proportions of giant parade balloons and everyone, even the hulking bear, has tiny, bright eyes that peer out at the audience in comic wonder. With words that roll off the tongue, pictures of charming woodland inhabitants and a dash of science, this one will have readers raring to go on a snow quest of their own. Ages 4-7. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A young boy asks various wild and domestic animals how they prepare for the arrival of snow. The verse varies from forced ("`I look for seeds,'/says the sparrow./Peck, peck, peck/when it starts to snow") to scientifically inaccurate ("`We fly south,'/say the geese,/`all in a row'"). While the text is unexciting, Matje's gouache and colored-pencil illustrations are lively and the animals' expressions range from baleful to sly as they ponder what they do. The quality illustrations rescue this mediocre text.-Farida Shapiro, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Gershator's rhyming text asks, What if it starts to snow? What do you do? Where do you go? and a menagerie of animals responds in turn. The repetition may please some ears, and Matje's gouache and colored pencil artwork is rich in texture with pleasing compositions and bold, playful characters. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What if it starts to snow? What do you do? Where do you go?"" begins this rudimentary wintertime natural history from Gershator (Sweet, Sweet Fig Banana, 1996, etc.). Citizens of the field, stream, and forest briefly sketch their doings when the flakes start falling; namely, they go someplace warm and do something useful, such as the sparrow's search for seeds, or the frog's descent into the mud of the pond. Most of the answers are set to rhyme with the original question, but not all, and that makes for a pleasing unpredictability in the proceedings. Each creature is given a page to air their intentions before the tempo quickens and another animal--a boy--races into the cold to celebrate the snow. A surprising amount of information is imparted by the brief text, and the illustrations are effective; Matje renders the winter sky in a pinkish gray and leaves much of the landscape a hushed white, broken only by footprints and pawprints. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
