The Snow Day

Starred review from January 12, 2009
Snow has been falling all night, and when a small rabbit awakens, he learns that kindergarten is closed, his mother can't go to the store, and his father's flight home has been canceled. “Mommy, we are all alone in the world,” he announces solemnly, and even though he's clearly safe and sound in an apartment with all the modern comforts, readers will understand his bittersweet feelings of isolation and solitude. Sakai (Emily's Balloon
) takes a very different approach in these pages: focusing more on setting and mood than characterization, she turns each illustration into a vivid snapshot (Mommy on the phone with stranded Daddy, an outdoor hug before the dash back indoors). Against a palette of grays and muted colors, she uses the yellow of the rabbit's jacket or boots to focus the reader's gaze, and layers the paints to suggest the intimacy and coziness of the hearth, the eerie but irresistible starkness of a landscape transformed by snow. Ages 3–5.

Starred review from December 1, 2008
PreS-KA five-year-old (rabbit) awakes one morning to discover that there will be no school, no daddy flying home today, and no going out outsideuntil the snow stops. Sakai clearly understands the predicament of being cooped up in an urban high rise: trying to stay entertained with games, constantly gazing out the window, being lured by the balcony. Her subdued palette and minimalist text suggest the blanketed sound produced by a heavy snowfall. Window-shaped frames with tight cropping contain the energy in the interior scenes; most exterior compositions bleed off the pageoh marvelous freedom! The layers of paint are applied to a black ground with a combination of wet and dry brushes, producing a convincing depth and texture; the darkness is a perfect foil for the cottony bright snowflakes. While the mother may appear overprotective about her bunny's health, she does relent when the snow stops, even though it is bedtime, and the pair enjoys a nocturnal adventure. The protagonist narrates in the first person; thus, the sentences are appropriately concise, yet with lovely rhythms and interesting details. (He ultimately makes snowballs and snow dumplings.) Atmospheric, tender, full of anticipation and satisfaction, this one will charm young children. In Leonid Gore's "Danny's First Snow" (S & S, 2007), a young rabbit, possessed of an active imagination, is encountering white creatures at every turn. Used together, the two books provide contrasting emotional and visual experiences of a universally beloved phenomenon (at least by young rabbits/children)."Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2009
Preschool-K *Starred Review* Most books about snow days focus on the sheer exuberance ofan unexpected day off from school. This story, as quiet as falling snow, evocatively chroniclesthenoticeable stillness when a little rabbit awakens to his mothers news that kindergartens closed. Scrambling to the snow-splotched window, the boy looks wonderingly outside.So begins a very special day that has action and inaction in equal parts. There are many things that wont get done: Mommy is unable to go to the store; Daddys flight is canceled, and hecant get home. But the day is more than waiting for the snow to stop. The boy plays cards with his mother, sneaks out on the balcony to make snow dumplings, and finally, just before bedtime, goes outside to makefootprints in the unsullied snow.As precisely crafted as a snowflake, the wordstake on a weight and wonder in Sakais thickly layeredpaintings. Half-page, full-page, two-page spreads, they use the grays of a winters dayand nightto capture the feeling of being alone in an icy world and celebrating therare moments of having the world to yourself.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)