Chaucer's First Winter
PreSchool-Grade 1—This addition to the crowded field of winter, bear, and snow books lacks internal logic and breaks no new ground. When his friends tell Chaucer (a little bear) that they will miss him because he will sleep through the winter, and his parents tell him it will be good for him, Chaucer "[is] not convinced." Instead, he stays awake, experiencing snowball fights, icy ponds, icicles, and sliding down hills. When a big storm hits, he builds a snow fort to protect his friends and, predictably, when spring comes, he falls asleep. Oddly, his parents appear in the background of a number of illustrations, awake as well. Cole's cuddly cartoon animals, which sport scarves but no other clothing, are rendered in acrylic paint, colored pencil, and ink. The pictures are large and inviting, primarily done in full-bleed spreads, with spot art and single-page illustrations adding motion and interest. For a better book about a bear resisting hibernation, stick with Catherine Walters'sWhen Will It Be Spring?(Dutton, 1998; o.p.). Leonid Gore'sDanny's First Snow(S & S, 2007) and Ezra Jack Keats'sThe Snowy Day(Viking, 1962) do a better job of exploring the joys of winter.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CTEND