First Snow Book and Audiocassette Tape Set

Ford and Braun get it just right in a book for young children who, like the characters here, are also experiencing their first snow. A gray, misty two-page spread marked by bare trees matches the first words: "It is dark--a winter's night. / The moon is bright, barely there behind a lazy haze of gray." On the next pages the palette turns a wintry purple as the snowflakes fall. Burrowed under the snow are Bunny and his siblings, nestled next to their mother, dreaming of grass. But Bunny awakes and goes outside to sniff the air, and the snow entices him. Then his brothers and sisters come out to explore the snow and "watch the nighttime." Squirrels gather pinecones; a wolf prowls. In the distance are houses: "Smoke and smells curl up and out" of the chimneys." Children play, and the bunnies follow suit, stumbling and tumbling in the snow. Ford's artful text is both fluid and evocative, yet it's right at a child's level in both word choice and premise. The rabbits have a stuffed-animal look, but the landscapes are so lovely that the whole book is elevated. Let little ones experience what it's like to be out in the wide, white expanse of a starry, starry night.