About the Holiday

Making paper snowflakes is a fun wintertime activity that brings the outdoors in on snowy days or clear ones. This craft originates in the art of origami—a variation called kirigami. While both origami and kirigami involve folding paper, kirigami entails unfolding the paper and making cuts in desired places to create an effect. Cut-out snowflakes combine the two as the cuts are made while the paper is still folded. Today, get out some paper and scissors and make your own snowflakes to hang!

Snow

Written by Cynthia Rylant | Illustrated by Lauren Stringer

Just as every snowflake is unique, each snowfall is different, bringing with it a special feeling. There are the snows that come during the night “like a shy friend, who is afraid to knock, so she thinks she will just wait in the yard until you see her. This is the snow that brings you peace.” There are also snows made of big, wet flakes that pile one on top of each other in such a way that you know you will be leaving school or work early and navigating the slippery roads until you’re home and happy with the magical interruption.

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Image copyright Lauren Stringer, 2008, text copyright Cynthia Rylant, 2008. Courtesy of HMH Books for Young Readers.

Some snows are just a dusting, just enough to make you notice even the smallest tree branches and the tiny footprints of sparrows. But there are also snows “so heavy they bury cars up to their noses, and make evergreens bow,” and are perfect for curling up to take a nap.

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Image copyright Lauren Stringer, 2008, text copyright Cynthia Rylant, 2008. Courtesy of HMH Books for Young Readers.

Children love snow and don’t mind pulling on coats and boots and mittens because it means that they will be going outside to catch snowflakes on their tongue and sled down high hills. “The snow loves them back,” giving them snow angels and snow friends and a fresh way to see how beautiful the world can be. The impermanence of snow reminds us all “that nothing lasts forever except memories.”

Back home, a snow day is a perfect time for enjoying something hot to drink, playing games, or having thoughtful talks while “the flowers sleep and the sun sleeps and the soft green gardens are waiting.”

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Image copyright Lauren Stringer, 2008, text copyright Cynthia Rylant, 2008. Courtesy of HMH Books for Young Readers.

Cynthia Rylant mesmerizes with her lyrical passages that personify snow and reveal its power to transform not only the world but our hearts as well. Whispering, waiting, concealing, and enhancing, Rylant’s snow is a friend, a playmate, and a teacher showing us a quieter world of surprising and tender details and encouraging us to look inside even as we are watching it fall outside.

In her breathtaking illustrations, Lauren Stringer brings Rylant’s vision to life while juxtaposing images of exuberant children with lovely flakes, swirls, and blankets of snow that reinforce the uniqueness of both. As a classroom full of students gaze out of the window anticipating early release, their happy, diverse faces are framed by beautiful snowflakes, each one different. A little girl sleeps soundly in her bed as snow, piling in a skirt of drifts around a tree and forming a sleepy twin, waits for the morning’s discovery. After a day of playing outside, the girl and her grandmother walk home in a winter wonderland tinted pink by the setting sun. As they sit indoors, cozy and planning the spring garden, a bunny sniffs the cold, crisp air. Spring is coming, but for now, the snow is the star.

A wonder-filled story for cozy reading on snowy days or for when the snow is missed, Snow is a magical addition to home, classroom, and public libraries.

Ages 4 – 7

HMH Books for Young Readers, 2017 | ISBN 978-1328740557 (Paperback)

Discover more about Cynthia Rylant and her books on her website.

To learn more about Lauren Stringer, her books, and her art, visit her website.