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I got over excited about showing you some books I love!
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Snow in picture books is one of the best things ever! I love it so much! Here’s a cosy selection of snowy scenes from books on my shelf.
Please share your favourite snow related book in the comments, I’d love to discover more!
Roland by Nelly Stéphane, illustrated by André François. Reprinted by Enchanted Lion. See that line of footprints that show you the triangle shape of the roof in the foreground? - that gives me a fluttery excited feel in my stomach! A shape conjured out of white space!
There is also excellent snow in Little Boy Brown by Isobel Harris, also illustrated by André François and reprinted by Enchanted Lion.
Love Matters Most by Mij Kelly, illustrated by Gerry Turley. A book about a polar bear in the snow? How challenging is that for an illustrator! This book is full of very delicate blues and yellow, then suddenly your eyes are dancing from a pop of bright red or yellow. There are big striking shapes and very satisfying scratchy scribbly textures. It’s very beautiful!
I got my copy from Turley & Stephens they’re closed for Christmas now. Available in the US here at Bookshop.org, but weirdly not at the UK site.
The Happy Prince adapted from the Oscar Wilde story and illustrated by Maisie Paradise Shearring. Above is a happy snow spread with gorgeous busy characters, the following three are increasingly sad, heartbreaking but beautiful snowy scenes. All of them masterful examples of texture and atmosphere.
Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr. Absolute classic! If you’ve ever lived in Britain then you’ve most likely read this. But if you haven’t, Mog the cat is deeply unsettled by all the Christmas activity and goes to sit on the roof. It all ends happily. My favourite part is one of the aunts gets a pair of flesh coloured tights for Christmas and is delighted! Available from pretty much everywhere in the UK that sells books.
Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs. Another stone cold classic. A grumpy, grumbling Father Christmas who lives in a normal house and does normal everyday things before and after his night of deliveries. You even get to see him on the toilet which delights me as much now as it did when I was a child.
How to hide a lion at Christmas by Helen Stephens is another excellent bit of British Christmas. Iris has to leave her lion behind when she visits her auntie for Christmas. There’s so much ordinary life beautifully depicted - going on a train, sprawling out on Christmas afternoon. Lion joining in with carol singing is my favourite bit!
Possibly also available from Turley & Stephens. And you know Helen’s here at Pencil Pals right?
White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin. Look at the right hand side of the snow fort - the fort only exists because of that one dry brush of grey. And the rabbits have no back legs, but your brain fills it all in. That’s part of the magic of snow in picture books!
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen. Of course, we all know Jon Klassen is the master of using snow in a picture book. That landscape spreads across the whole double page even though there’s only two sticks in the right hand half of the right hand page. I really love this book, the colourful knitting that goes through the black and white drawings is a dream.
There’s more recent Jon Klassen snow in The Skull.
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper, illustrated by Carson Ellis. The snow in this book stretches from neolithic times to now. Carson Ellis’ incredible colour sense is the perfect partner for Susan Cooper’s words.
While not a picture book, I have to point you to Susan Cooper’s snow filled classic The Dark is Rising which contains the best descriptions of snow building up and pressing in on a family home. There’s a podcast version from the BBC here with great snow crunch sounds.
Through the Forest by Yijing Li. The snow in this book is never defined as snow, but I see it as snow. It’s more an emotion than a type of weather. But I really wanted to share it with you. Yijing Li’s wild splotchy inks are so beautiful and exactly the right type of falling apart, barely there, can-just-about-read-it-type of image that I absolutely love.
That’s just a small selection of the snowy books I have on my bookshelves!
What’s your favourite book for this time of year? Picture book or otherwise!
All my posts are remaining free and open for the foreseeable future! If you fancy getting me a cuppa tea that would be amazing! Totally up to you, we’ll still be friends!
I think I still have a copy of the Raymond Briggs Father Christmas book. Definitely a classic! I'm looking forward to seeing the Mogg animation that's on at Christmas! x
Ooh lots of new ones to look up there, thank you for the recommendations! I still get Mog's Christmas & the Raymond Briggs books out every Christmas, despite the fact that my kids are teenagers now ... and The Dark is Rising has been my favourite winter book to read since I was 11. I really enjoyed the audio version - just want to see a proper Susan-Cooper-Approved film of it now!