'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Thursday 8 September 2016

Review: First Snow

Life firsts are just the loveliest thing. When our children grow, we celebrate them in special books with pretty covers, and we chirp about them to all and sundry.

In this gorgeous book, we meet a toddler who experiences her first snowfall. Woken at night, she slips on her boots, coat, scarf and hat (she's a dexterous little possum!) and wanders out into the darkened night and joins her puppies to experience the wonder of snow.

Patting, rolling, beneath the shiny lights of the neighbourhood, beneath the moon. She rolls a massive snowball through the woods and into the pitch black where she meets with a strange light--and there finds the wonder of a remote snowscape, populated by polar bears and other toddlers, wrapped up warm, with gigantic snowballs of their own.

Together, they make snowmen and rise up into the sky, floating around like the very flakes of snow that fall and tingle our little girl's tongue.

Of course, more dreamlike than real life, this magical story celebrates the sensation of first snow for the very young, showcasing the wonder to be found in the icy fairy dust that floats from the sky, the vastness of snow-covered landscapes and the apparent enormity of the family snowman ... from the point of view of such a tiny child.

Succinct yet lovely text couples with divine illustrations painted on textured canvas. The monochromatic pages (with little cherry pops of red) turn from dark to light as the story unfolds, making for a visually entrancing creation that adults will delight in as much as tiny tots.

First Snow has been produced with regular paper and a dust jacket, making it more of a gift- or bedtime story-book, rather than a book toddlers could independently enjoy (here's hoping there will be a board book version, too).

Title: First Snow
Author/Illustrator: Bomi Park
Publisher: Chronicle, $29.99
Publication Date: 6 September 2016
Format: Hard cover with dust jacket, small
ISBN: 9781452154725
For ages: 1 - 5
Type: Picture Book