Review: "A Delightful and Worthy Children's Story"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 7, 2013
This is a very enjoyable, fun book to read to young children.  The illustrations created by Jennifer Bastow are delightful.  If a child already has a joyful doggy or kitty, they will really enjoy hearing this tale of Patchy the Dog and Calico the Cat.  Patchy and Calico wake in the morning and want to stay nestled in bed.  But after hearing soft sounds outside their window, they are thrilled to see that it has been snowing.  Snow!  Patchy loves snow and he wants to run in it and also make a snowman ... one that can walk and talk! Calico is Patchy's buddy so wants to help build his snowman.  Calico gets to the top of the hill first and already has snowman's head made and decorated.  Patchy is so klutzy...he kept sliding backwards on the hill. He watches boys on sleds going down the hill that looks like more fun, but he'll wait until the snowman is finished.  He was building a ball of snow, pushing it through the snow to make it bigger.  Oops!  He goes over the edge and rolls with the snowball and when it stops at the bottom of the hill ... well, he's in the middle of the huge snowball!  Now, the snowball can walk and talk!  This is an amazing, wonderfully written story that is totally entertaining as well as it presents lessons to be learned by children.  There are questions at the end of each section to ask the child to see if they learned rules and if they follow them.  This is only the first part.  There is more to the story which are memorable and important in teaching children good-life values; i.e., giving presents, the meanings of Christmas and Hanukkah, how it feels to make others smile.  It's a remarkably well presented story to read to a child over about four or five evenings.  It's wonderful, wonderful ... the best children's book I've read in a long time!