Poetry Friday - A review of Snow, Snow: Winter poems for children

One of the things that I look forward to in winter is snow. I love watching snow drift down, I like playing in the snow, and I enjoy sledding, snowshoeing and skiing. Usually by January the mountains around my town have enough snow on them that we can go skiing, but so far this winter it has been very dry and too warm. People of all ages are grumbling about our snow-less state.

Thankfully people like Jane Yolen know just how to take her readers into another world, which in today's poetry book is a snowy one. I might not be able to go skiing or sledding, but thanks to this book I can imagine that I am looking at a beautiful snow-dusted landscape.

Snow, Snow: Winter poems for children

Jane Yolen

Photographs by Jason Stemple

Poetry Picture Book

For ages 7 to 10

Boyds Mills Press, 1998, 1-59078-346-8

   For many people snow is a “cold and wet and sometimes inconvenient” problem to deal with during the months of winter. For others, snow is something that turns the outdoors into a magical playground. It is something that transforms the landscape into a beautiful glittery world that is full of promise.

   For this special collection of poems, Jane Yolen has created thirteen poems that are perfectly paired with Jason Stemple’s gorgeous photographs to give readers, young and old, a picture (in words and images) of snowy woods, skiers going down a mountainside, a snowmobile flying through the air, and more.

   We find out “what is cold and plump / And billows,” and we see how snowy trees look as if someone has painted them in the night so that they are now “As white as wool” wearing “A diamond crown.”

   With language rich with beautiful imagery, and with touches with humor here and there, this collection is just the thing to share with someone on a chilly winter day.