Review by Booklist Review
Ages 2^-4. As he did in Dawn (1974) and the Caldecott Honor Book The Treasure (1978), Shulevitz captures the small child's joyful vision, which can see a world in Blake's grain of sand--or in a snowflake. The innocent, small boy with his dog, uncluttered by adult experience, can see clearly what is happening around him. He counts each snowflake, one by one, until the world is white and the snow is everywhere. In contrast, the suave, sophisticated adults--the bookish authority, the cosmopolitan, the guy with a boombox, the brash announcer on TV--they are dismissive, they are certain: "No snow." But they are wrong. The setting of the clear, lovely, detailed line-and-watercolor paintings is a combination of shtetl folk art and urban contemporary, until finally the gray sky and buildings and city are totally new and white. Then the boy is free to imagine the characters of Mother Goose dancing with him and his dog in the white world of snow. Like the pictures, the rhythm of the simple, poetic words evoke the child's physical immediacy and sense of wonder as he watches snow "floating, floating through the air, falling, falling everywhere." Kids will enjoy the small child's triumph in the fact that he is right, even as they will recognize the exhilaration of a snowfall that changes what you thought you knew. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this companion to Dawn and Rain Rain Rivers, Shulevitz uses text as spare as a December landscape to cast a spell of winter magic. Despite predictions to the contrary ("`No snow,' said radio"; "`It'll melt,' said woman with umbrella"), a boy and his dog spy a single snowflake and rush outside in gleeful anticipation. Sure enough, one snowflake turns into two, two into three, and before long snow is "dancing, playing,/ there, and there,/ floating, floating through the air." In a lovely fantasy sequence that hints at the wonder children find in snowfall, a trio of Mother Goose characters climb down from a bookshop window to join the boy and his dog as they frolic through the city streets. The Caldecott Medalist works a bit of visual alchemy as the tale progresses, gradually transforming the chilly gray watercolor washes with flecks of snow, until his cityscape is a frozen fairyland. Pure enchantment from start to finish. Ages 3-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-When a young boy sees a single snowflake fall, he rejoices that a major storm is on the way, despite predictions to the contrary. But it is the child who prevails as the "snowflakes keep coming and coming and coming." Shulevitz's outstanding illustrations, rendered in watercolor and pen and ink, enrich and extend the brief text. The boy and his dog appear in the lower right-hand corner of the appropriately white front endpapers, arms and legs joyfully pummeling the air, and readers can almost forecast his announcement, "It's snowing." Pictures are framed in varying amounts of white space, the largest frames engulfing the nay-saying adults. The illustrations gradually build to a two-page spread in which "the whole city is white." Shulevitz's cartoons are filled with humorous touches: buildings tilt; an oversized woman carries a tiny umbrella; a tall man wears an outrageously tall hat; a radio almost as big as the person carrying it appears to have eyes, nose, and mouth. The characters displayed in the window of "Mother Goose Books" come to life to cavort with the child among the swirling flakes. Youngsters will joyfully join the boy in his winter-welcoming dance.-Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community-Technical College, CT (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
(Preschool) Like most creative artists who are also critics, Shulevitz displays time and again in his own work the criteria that are the foundation of his critical theories. Snow is no exception. Through a minimalist text and carefully composed illustrations, it demonstrates his belief that the true picture book, with its inevitable melding of words and art, is a distinct genre. The premise is as simple as it is universal (at least in cold climates): the transforming power of a snowstorm. The setting is a dour, gray little town suggesting an Eastern European locale of old-except for television and radio. Neither of the latter is particularly prescient when it comes to predicting weather, for ""snowflakes don't listen to radio, / snowflakes don't watch television."" Only a hopeful small boy recognizes the first snowflake as a harbinger of the wonder to come. Nor is he discouraged as one adult after another tries to disabuse him. With each turn of the page, marvels occur that are presented only in the illustrations: the rooftops gradually whiten; the village becomes an enchanted landscape; nursery rhyme characters emerge from their niches in the Mother Goose bookstore, joining the small boy in a joyous winter ballet. As in Shulevitz's Dawn, the changes are gradual and logical-not quite as dramatic, perhaps, but nonetheless satisfying, with a touch of the fantastic. The palette is appropriately subdued, depending in the concluding pages upon the contrast between a freshly blue sky and snow-covered buildings rather than brilliant colors for effect. m.m.b. (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
Shulevitz (The Secret Room, 1993, etc.) implies that there is much to be said for youthful hope amid all the dour nay-saying from adults. Here, early flakes hold out the promise to a boy and his dog of the season's first snowfall, and prompt elders to pooh-pooh any chance of accumulation. As if by force of will, aided and abetted by the mysteries of natureand despite radio and TV forecasts to the contrarythe flakes keep coming, swirling, dusting, covering. Finally, the town is draped in an encompassing cloak of snow; a number of storybook characters (that had been images on the facade of a children's bookstore) break into a winter dance with the young boy, giving the book a pleasantly fantastical turn. The small town European setting is the sort that Shulevitz does best: evocative, timeless, and as irresistible as the first snow. (Picture book. 3-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
