Review by New York Times Review
"SNOW," WRITES THE British environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, who creates ephemeral sculpture from snowballs and ice, "provokes responses that reach right back to childhood." For all but the most jaded, a coating of the white stuff is enough to make our familiar world look tantalizingly new and strange again, much as children experience it 24/7. No wonder classic picture-book artists like Ezra Jack Keats ("The Snowy Day") and William Steig ("Brave Irene") found inspiration in wintry weather, as do more than a few writers and illustrators for children working today. "First Snow," the Korean illustrator Bomi Park's debut picture book, is an assured and enchanting fantasy that reveals fresh secrets with each page turn. The cozy cover image of a wide-eyed toddler playing outdoors in the snow hardly hints at the dreamlike adventure to follow, in which the little girl rolls an everlarger snowball through village streets, past farm fields, and finally deep into the forest. There the narrative - carried forward in a few words and Park's meticulously observed, soft-focus illustrations - takes first one unexpected and altogether magical turn, then another, and another. What appears at the start to be a quiet little story proves in the end to be just the opposite: an inviting springboard to make-believe. While for Park a snowy landscape is a winter wonderland not to be missed, "Before Morning" makes the case that home is the place to be when the temperature plummets. Joyce Sidman voices a wish well known to schoolchildren: the dream scenario of a snowfall deep enough to keep everyone housebound. A keenly perceptive poet, Sidman shows that words and snow both have the power to transform our view of things: "Let the air turn to feathers, / the earth turn to sugar, / and all that is heavy/turn light." In an author's note, she explains that her 66-word lyric is an "invocation," a kind of secular prayer or spell that "invites something to happen." It was up to the illustrator Beth Krommes, the winner of the 2009 Caldecott Medal for "The House in the Night," to decide just what that "something" should be. Krommes is a master of scratchboard art, an exacting line technique that entails cutting into the black over-layer of a prepared surface to the white layer below to create a shimmering black-on-white image to which other colors can then be added. The visual back story Krommes has imagined for "Before Morning" takes us inside the comfortably cluttered home of a close-knit family. The mom we see there is a commercial airline pilot who is getting ready for work. Her young daughter, we realize, wishes that her mother would instead stay home with her. Love of family, Krommes suggests, may be one good reason to wish for a blizzard. The kinetic line-work of her rigorously stylized illustrations has almost the impact of a second back story, ft implies that the family vignette we've glimpsed is a small but integral part of a much larger narrative in which people, trees, cities, blizzards and the world at large are all entwined in one continuous living web. The elfin Antarctic dwellers of "Little Penguins" are a lot like preschoolers you may know: They savor the excitement of a good outdoor winter frolic, then, having had their fill of the cold, delight equally in the warmth and safety of home, which in their case is a nicely furnished igloo. Cynthia Rylant, winner of the 1993 Newbery Medal for "Missing May," is an exceptionally versatile writer who, here donning her best poker face, has mapped the high points of the penguins' eventful day in a few, fun-to-read-aloud words. Christian Robinson's lighthearted illustrations overlay childlike cut-paper characters on softly tinted backgrounds that burst into bright primary colors when the little birds finally scurry indoors to warm their webbed feet. Winter weather can of course also turn treacherous. A woolly mammoth with a biblical name is the beating heart of "Samson in the Snow," Philip C. Stead's exquisitely poised and tender fable about friendship in extreme circumstances. Built to withstand the fiercest blizzard, longhaired Samson is a gentle giant in the Ferdinand/ Horton mold who, for all his impressive physical heft and strength, feels a sharp need for companionship. The options in his neck of the tundra are apparently quite limited, however, and before long we see him befriending a little red bird and a mouse. When a storm hits, true-blue Samson not only worries about the fate of these vulnerable creatures, but also goes to great lengths to safeguard them. Like some sort of ice age Aesop, he concludes, "ft is better to walk than to worry." Together with his wife, Erin E. Stead (with whom he collaborated on the 2011 Caldecott Medal book "A Sick Day for Amos McGee"), Stead has been in the forefront of illustrators to respond to the preponderance of pixilated images by reembracing the handmade look and feel of picture books. He draws Samson here in a vigorous gestural style while rendering the landscapes through which the big guy lumbers in mood-mirroring expanses of richly hued and textured pastels. He adds an occasional rough-hewed cardboard print (something like a potato print) of a snowflake as a homey, but perfectly placed, decorative element. No creature - or artisanal flake - is too small to care about. Stead leaves the reader with much to ponder, not least if you consider that his unflappable mammoth's real-world counterparts went extinct millenniums ago and that the Old Testament superhero whose name he bears was betrayed by the woman he loved. Are readers to wonder whether earthly friendship is just as transitory? Stead and Samson are rather alike in their determination to leave as little to chance as possible, and in their view that good fellowship - like good bookmaking - is an art to be tended down to the last detail. A better gloss of Stead's fable might be : What's a little blizzard between friends? Let it snow. LEONARD S. MARCUS'S books include "Golden Legacy," "Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon" and, most recently, "Comics Confidential."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [December 11, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
As a heavy snowstorm descends, a sweet and gentle woolly mammoth named Samson is very concerned about a small red bird he recently befriended over a mutual love of dandelions. Like the author's Caldecott-winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee (2010), this picture book features a quiet type of thoughtfulness that makes for a pleasurable, low-key read. Children will be riveted, though, by Samson's journey to locate the feathered fellow. Will he find the bird before the snow becomes too dangerous? A mouse he meets on his journey into an increasingly bluish-gray world is eager to help. Stead has tackled the illustrations without his partner and wife, Erin, this time around, and the pictures have a sturdy feel, grounded by the mastodon's large, reddish-brown figure. The bird is omnipresent in Samson's thoughts, and his beakful of yellow flowers provides bright bursts of color. As Samson continues his journey, readers will perceive that he's also moving toward a happy chance for friendship. A lovely tale for a peaceful storytime.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Stead (Ideas Are All Around) returns to themes he's made his own: friendship, acceptance, and love for small, ordinary objects that most people overlook. Together, his observations form a gentle theology. Samson is a mammoth who wears an expression of furry concern. He's first seen weeding his dandelion patch. (Aren't dandelions weeds? Not to Samson.) A red bird appears: "Would you mind if I took some flowers for a friend?" the bird asks. "He is having a bad day." Samson hears this wistfully: "He wondered what it would be like to have a friend." When a blizzard descends, Samson thinks immediately of the bird, his concern etched in a wordless vision of the tiny animal sprawled in the snow, and sets out to rescue her. Samson trudges over broad, snowy plains, eventually finding a mouse-the very friend, it emerges, for whom the flowers were intended. Together they find the bird, not a moment too soon. The contrast between the very large and the very small contributes to the story's magic, and so does Samson, a hero who is tender, patient, and loyal. Ages 4-8. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Samson the woolly mammoth is content with the company of his flowers. When a little red bird flies by, asking for some flowers for a friend whose favorite color is yellow, Samson wonders what having a pal would be like. As summer turns to winter, Samson, concerned about the bird's fate, decides that "it is better to walk than to worry" and sets out to find her. In the meantime he meets a mouse who is also in search of a friend, and together they rescue the bird, who has become trapped in the ice. The storm finally passes as the three newly united creatures trade stories of their adventures. Simple language is suitable for either read-alouds or independent reading. Although some text blocks are within illustrations, most are placed on light backgrounds, making all but one easy to read. As in the best picture books, the narrative is told in words and pictures. Two wordless spreads show the bird's predicament, while a third contrasts these starry white and blue winter scenes with a bright yellow summer one. Pencil-line animals stand out against highly textured backgrounds, and color is essential to the plot, as readers realize that the mouse-whose favorite color is yellow-is the friend for whom the bird originally sought flowers. VERDICT This sweet tale of friendship deserves a place in every collection.-Jill Ratzan, Congregation Kol Emet, Yardley, PA © Copyright 2016. 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
Samson, an introspective and genial woolly mammoth, spends his days pulling weeds in his dandelion patch and patiently waiting for a new friend. After sharing his flowers with a little red bird on a mission to cheer up a pal who is having a bad day, Samson falls into a meditative sleep. Samsons dream shifts from yellow (the color of dandelions) to white as a snowstorm hits, disrupting his slumber and jump-starting his worry for the bird: I wonder if she is out there?I wonder if she is cold? Intermittent, wordless spreads of the bird struggling through the storm reveal that Samsons concerns are warranted. As the mammoth searches for the bird, he encounters and gives a lift to a mouse who, unbeknownst to Samson, is looking for the little red bird as well. Eventually the pair stumbles upon a small patch of dandelions in the snow and, subsequently, the near-freezing bird. Succinct dialogue (I found you! cried Samson. And I found you, too! cried the mouse) divulges the trios interconnectivity and forecasts a warm future. Lush mixed-media illustrations fill nearly every page with richly textured landscapes in mood-reflecting blues, grays, and yellows. Bite-sized bits of wisdom (It is better to walk than to worry; If she is smallthen we should watch where we step), acts of noble unselfishness, and thoughtful pacing boost this missing-friend story into a comforting tale packed with symbolism and beauty. patrick gall(c) Copyright 2016. 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.
