Once Upon a Winter Day

September 1, 2020
When a child's mother is too busy for stories, he follows some tracks in the snow and makes up his own. Milo's angry face as he stomps out the door speaks volumes about his disappointment. But it isn't long before he spies a mouse's tracks under the birdfeeder and begins a journey of discovery. At the winterberry bush, Milo observes that all the red berries are gone and finds a single feather; "What had happened here?" A page turn allows readers time to guess: A flock of cedar waxwings (identified on the endpapers along with tracks and a few animals that readers will have to look very closely to find) flies over the tiny mouse, a single red berry falling to the ground. This pattern repeats, with Milo finding fallen hemlock branches (porcupines), clods of dirt (grazing deer), a smooth trail to the creek (otters), and wing prints in the snow (a narrow miss with a red-tailed hawk). The call of "Dinner time!" has Milo following the trail back to a hole in the snow by his house; a cutaway view shows a second mouse waiting under the woodpile. As Milo lays his treasures--a feather, an acorn, a hemlock branch, and a fish skeleton--on the table, he declines his mother's offer of stories: He's got one to tell instead. Both have pale skin and straight, dark hair. Pair with some children's nature guidebooks to ignite imaginations. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 30.1% of actual size.) Nature tells good stories if we only get outside and look around. (Picture book. 4-8)

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Starred review from October 5, 2020
Milo wants a story, but his busy mother sends him to play in the snow instead. Miffed, he starts following a set of tiny mouse tracks beneath the bird feeder. As he picks up clues (a feather, a fish’s skeleton), asks questions (“Who had dug beneath the snow?”), and knits together his observations, he makes up a tale all on his own. And he’s not the only storyteller out there: the observant mouse responsible for the tracks is the protagonist of its own exciting drama—it must get a juicy red winterberry home without being eaten by a hawk. Woodruff’s (A Quieter Story) spare, evocative text (“A cold wind crept beneath Milo’s scarf”) quietly amplifies her expansive watercolor, pen-and-ink, and colored pencil drawings, which alternate between highly distilled snowy scenes and lushly detailed spreads; in one scene, the mouse scampers past a closely packed herd of velvety brown deer foraging for acorns. It’s a richly narrative landscape—one that should inspire readers to venture outside and notice stories of their own. Ages 4–8. Agent: Andrea Cascardi, Transatlantic Agency.

October 23, 2020

K-Gr 2-In a book reminiscent of Lindsay George's In the Snow: Who's Been Here?, a young person goes out to the woods to play and discovers the drama of the outdoors. What Milo, who is white, really wants is for his mother to read him a story but she needs to work. Milo's trek through the woods leads him to ponder all the activity that he sees traces of but does not witness. Through a series of footprints, wing marks, and other signs of animal activity the boy returns home with a story of his own making to share with his mother. The limited text and detailed illustrations, done in mixed media, capture a wide variety of wild animals and the interplay among them as they search for food and try to survive. VERDICT Superb illustrations that carry the story along make this an outstanding choice for collections seeking winter stories.-John Scott, Friends Sch. of Baltimore

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2020
Preschool-Grade 2 Milo's mother has no time to read him a story, so he goes outdoors. Snow has fallen, covering the hills, fields, and woods around their home. As he walks, he notices animal tracks and traces in the snow. Following a mouse's paw-print trail, he discovers more clues and imagines the animals' activities: a feather in a bush (a flock of birds ascending), hemlock branches on the ground (porcupines nibbling in the treetops), and a snowy trough running down the creek bank (river otters sliding toward the water). Later, turning the tables on his busy mother, Milo returns home with stories to tell her. During Milo's outdoor adventures, pairs of double-page illustrations set up puzzles and possible solutions. The first scene shows the boy making a discovery, while the next depicts the animal leaving the clue, a pattern that invites kids to predict each answer. In the outdoor scenes, expanses of snow set off the mixed-media illustrations' clean lines and forest colors very effectively. An inviting read-aloud choice for preschool and primary-grade units on animals in winter.

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