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Book Cover for: Big Snow, Jonathan Bean

Big Snow

Jonathan Bean

Nominee:Keystone to Reading Book Award -Primary (2015)
Highly Commended:Charlotte Zolotow Award -Picture Book Text (2014)

An excited and frustrated boy watches hopefully as wintry weather develops slowly into a "big snow."

While "helping" his mother with holiday housecleaning, a boy keeps a watchful eye on the progress of a winter storm. He's hoping for a big snow. A really big snow. Inside, he is underfoot, turning sheet-changing and tub-scrubbing into imaginary whiteouts. Outside, flakes are flying. But over the course of a long day (for Mom) the clouds seem slow on delivering a serious snowfall. Then comes a dreamy naptime adventure, marking just the beginning of high hopes coming true in this irresistible seasonal story.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
  • Publish Date: Sep 24th, 2013
  • Pages: 32
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 11.28in - 8.84in - 0.34in - 0.82lb
  • EAN: 9780374306960
  • Recommended age: 03-06
  • Categories: • Science & Nature - Weather• Family - Parents• Holidays & Celebrations - Christmas & Advent

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About the Author

Bean, Jonathan: - JONATHAN BEAN received an M.F.A. from New York's School of Visual Arts and now lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A two-time winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, for At Night and Building Our House, he is also the illustrator of Big Snow, two picture books by Lauren Thompson, and Bad Bye, Good Bye by Deborah Underwood.
Bean, Jonathan: - JONATHAN BEAN received an M.F.A. from New York's School of Visual Arts and now lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A two-time winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, for At Night and Building Our House, he is also the illustrator of Big Snow, two picture books by Lauren Thompson, and Bad Bye, Good Bye by Deborah Underwood.

More books by Jonathan Bean

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Praise for this book

"This delightful picture book charts a child's excitement over the imminent arrival of a snowstorm. . . This wonderful tale begs to be read aloud." --School Library Journal

"*Terrific . . . [Bean's] subtly rhythmic prose and elegant, astute watercolors hit just the right notes of comedy, suspense, and fantasy." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"*Winter's chills, rituals and resulting familial closeness, rendered in simple, surprisingly poignant drawings, make this a perennial read at first frost." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Bean uses soft pastels to depict a warm kitchen, loving parents, and a yellow cat, whose presence can be spied on every page." --BCCB

"Bean's superbly patterned text builds anticipation, and his pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations make clear links between what is going on in David's imagination and what is happening out in the real world. The warm illustrations showing brown-skinned David's cozy home provide a nice contrast to the occasional wordless double-page spread showing the outdoors, with an ever-increasing amount of snow. Young readers are sure to identify with David's longing and excitement." --The Horn Book

"The turn of the season often elicits from children the first wistful conversations about snow: When will it come? How much will there be? These are the questions that consume a preschooler in Jonathan Bean's quietly lovely Big Snow. Trailing his mother about the house as she cooks and cleans, 'helping' her so enthusiastically that he doubles the work, little David wonders about the weather. As flakes begin to cover the streets, and David's excitement grows, we alternate between snug indoor scenes and the sight of the child's neighborhood disappearing--at last!--beneath a heavy blanket of white. A glimpse of the end of autumn, if not quite yet." --The Wall Street Journal