winter picture books

Brrrrrr! Can you feel it? Yes, the winds of change are blowing once again. Did a snowflake just tickle the tip of your nose?

With Winter Solstice coming up next week, it’s time to fluff our feathers, cozy up with a warm cuppa, and enjoy Buffy Silverman’s latest picture book, On a Flake-Flying Day: Watching Winter’s Wonders (Millbrook Press, 2023).

In this third title of her award winning series celebrating the seasons, we see how animals adapt to the cold and learn about weather conditions related to wind and water. When the world is blanketed in snow, many fascinating things are happening above and below ground.

Once again, Buffy invites readers to join her for a fun nature walk via an inventive rhyming text and gorgeous color photographs. It’s always a joy to read aloud her sprightly hyphenated noun-verb adjectives, a perfect set up for evocative pairs of short rhyming sentences powered by choice verbs:

On a feather-fluffing,
seed-stuffing,
cloud-puffing day . . . 

Weasel whitens.
Cardinal brightens.

Frost glistens.
Owl listens.

Leaves rustle.
Squirrels hustle.

Her verse brims with deliciously informative sensory detail. The weasel is an example of an animal camouflaging itself for protection, while the cardinal’s bright red does the opposite — makes the male stand out to better its chances of finding a mate. Along with glistening frost, a majestic owl listening for underground prey, rustic leaves clinging to their branches, and a pinecone-nibbling squirrel, what a fabulous feast for the eyes!

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What ingredients would you need to have a wonderful, jubilant, extra-happy, a little bit mysterious winter holiday?

Hmmm, perhaps two furry brown animals (one adorably stout, the other tall and sleek), a perky, yellow-feathered birdie, a warm hollow with a cozy fire, and CAKE!

For added flavor (why not?), add a bustling tea room with chatty critters in the middle of the woods, a basket of dried fruit, and three mistakes (that’s the mysterious part) — and you have the utterly charming new picture book, Wintercake (Greenwillow, 2019), written and illustrated by Newbery winner Lynne Rae Perkins.

You could say this one was written with my name all over it. I will say it’s one of my top three fave picture books of the year, and definitely one of my all-time favorite holiday books. After all, I do love little furry animals (I’m married to one), we do live in the woods (I dream of opening a tea room), and after eating enough cake, I could very well be described as stout. 😀

What’s that? You’re a little concerned about the ‘mysterious mistakes’? I thought as much. Don’t worry, because in this story, we see how mistakes can lead to good things — an adventure, new friends, new traditions — all cause for celebration. Let me explain . . .