Snow Sounds: An Onomatopoeic Story
PreSchool-Grade 2–One way to describe this offering is to call it a wordless story with a soundtrack. Johnson switches between interior and exterior scenes to create a visual narrative: a youngster rises and gets dressed; a snowplow clears the road to his rural house; the boy shovels the walk while his father cleans the driveway; the school bus arrives; his mother rushes out with a forgotten present; the smiling child sits onboard anticipating a holiday celebration. Full-bleed watercolor spreads capture the light of a wintry morning perfectly: a deep gray-blue predominates, shot through with a translucent mottled white and accented with small focused patches of vibrant color–a yawning mouth, the date (December 23) circled on a calendar, the gift wrapped in red paper. Descriptive words accompany the artwork, from the boy's quiet Snore and the predawn hush, to the snowplow's Crash Crush Clank and the bus's Jingly Clink. This accomplished offering has a variety of uses and will appeal to a wide age range: younger children will enjoy the action, while those with more developed narrative skills will comb through the pages to create and re-create the story. Although the book's complete aesthetic delight might best be appreciated by children from snowy climes, most libraries will value this unique and intriguing title.–Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.