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46th out of 76 books
—
226 voters
White Snow, Bright Snow
When the first flakes fell from the grey sky, the postman and the farmer and the policeman and his wife scurried about doing all the practical things grownups do when a snowstorm comes. But the children laughed and danced, and caught the lacy snowflakes on thier tongues. All the wonder and delight a child feels in a snowfall is caught in the pages of this book -- the frost...more
Paperback, 32 pages
Published
November 28th 1988
by HarperCollins
(first published April 1st 1947)
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One of the definitions for a picture book is that the book displays respect for a child’s understanding and appreciation for illustrations and what is being displayed. In White Snow Bright Snow, the illustrator is able to draw out the experiences of winter and how snow affects and changes the daily lives of people all around the world who deal with snow. In one of the scenes, a house is being illustrated with a wall that is open to see what is happening inside with the woman, and although this i...more
This is a story about a heavy snowfall and how it affects a postman, farmer, and policeman, as well as the children who play in the snow. It has very descriptive language about the snow and how it covers the landscape. It also describes how it affects the rabbits and describes the children's play time in the snow. This book was published in 1947 so the illustrations of the people are representative of the way people dressed during that time. The policeman's wife and her kitchen match the 40s and...more
Alvin Tresselt has a gift for describing natural phenomena in a way that is easy for children to understand. This story opens with three poetic stanzas giving tribute to a snowfall, then proceeds into a story in which a 1940's small town experiences a snowfall. Each of the four grownups in the story attends to adult activities to prepare for the snow, but the children anticipate it gleefully, waiting for the magic of snow which means an instant holiday. While the adults man shovels, catch colds,...more
The illustrations that make up such an important part of White Snow Bright Snow are truly some of the finest that I have seen in any recipient of the Caldecott Medal. I love Roger Duvoisin's rich drawing style, which displays all the good characteristics of both old-fashioned charm and sensitivity to the world as perceived by young readers.
White Snow Bright Snow begins as all the people of a small town realize that the first big snow of the season is about to hit. Adults and kids deal with the...more
White Snow Bright Snow begins as all the people of a small town realize that the first big snow of the season is about to hit. Adults and kids deal with the...more
Even though this is a picture book, Lexile gives this book 870L. It is a Caldecott Award winner. The main characters of this book include the rabbits, the children, the postman, the farmer, the policeman and his wife. It is written from narrative point of view. The setting is a common neighborhood. The story is told by the narrator. At the beginning, the temperature was getting colder and colder. You can tell it from people's reaction. The night then came. Everyone went home so that they did not...more
White Snow, Bright Snow is about a town that is expecting snow. Once the town finally gets its snow fall, everyone in the town goes about with their snow activities. The story goes about with season of winter, and then at the end of the book, the snow melts and birds start to sing, and it is now spring. The pictures are done mostly in black and white with the accent colors of red and yellow. The pictures have a foggy look to them, but they are easy to follow. The author does a good job of tying...more
The story begins with a simple poem in the beginning of the book, which I thought was kinda cool; although I happen to really enjoy poetry. The books follows a couple of different people in a small town and talks about the things that they have to do so survive the winter and the snow. My favorite part was that when it was talking about the policeman it always talked about his wife too and the things that she had to do for him since it was cold and snowy outside. I didn't like how the words were...more
Not a huge fan of this one, though I can see it’s appeal – especially during the time that it was published. The colors of the illustrations, and the poem form were offputting to me in the beginning. Some parts of the story seem a bit old fashioned, like the mustard plaster that the policeman’s wife applies when he has a cold. On the other hand it is a sweet story of a snow coming, and the many ways people know that the snow is coming (even the bunnies) and culminates in the fading of the snow,...more
Jul 15, 2011
Elizabeth S
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
picture-books,
caldecott
I liked it! And it was fun to find that the illustrator, Roger Duvoisin, is also the author for the wonderful Petunia goose books. Funny thing, even though I really like the illustrator, and I should be raving about his Caldecott award winning illustrations, my favorite part of the book is the rhythm of the story. Notice I didn't say rhythm of the words, but the rhythm of the story. Throughout the story we hear about the postman, then the farmer, then the policeman, then the policeman's wife. An...more
3.5 STARS
This won the Caldecott Medal in 1947. I'm not really "up" with my 1940s picture book knowledge so don't have any way of saying if it deserved it. It's certainly not one of my top illustrated reads. But, that said, I really did enjoy reading it since it just feels so nostalgic and nice--like watching one of those great old Christmas movies or some old slides of my parents' childhood Christmas mornings ;-) The story itself is pretty simple, nothing really stellar in the telling; it's been...more
This won the Caldecott Medal in 1947. I'm not really "up" with my 1940s picture book knowledge so don't have any way of saying if it deserved it. It's certainly not one of my top illustrated reads. But, that said, I really did enjoy reading it since it just feels so nostalgic and nice--like watching one of those great old Christmas movies or some old slides of my parents' childhood Christmas mornings ;-) The story itself is pretty simple, nothing really stellar in the telling; it's been...more
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This is a great story to read in Wyoming. I could picture myself and our community throughout the entire book. The story begins just as the first snow of the season begins. The children are excited to see the snowflakes, but the grown-ups know they must start preparing for winter! The postman gets out his over boots, the farmer puts the animals in the barn, the policeman puts on a heavy coat and his wife makes sure they have cold medicine on hand. They just don't seem as excited about the snow a...more
White Snow Bright Snow takes the reader on a journey of the first snowfall, all the way through winter, and into spring. Tresselt describes the vast majority of sights, sounds, and experiences throughout the winter months. Though there is a large amount of text throughout this book, the words are extremely descriptive and allow the reader to create a visual in their head while hearing the story. This is beneficial to a young reader because they are able to strengthen their imagination and then s...more
I fell in love with this book! It brought me right back to childhood and snow days. The excitement I would feel when snow would hit the ground! The book is full of color and detail. It perfectly portrays the joy of the first snowfall of the season when you are a child. My favorite part is the night before when the children a bundled in their beds dreaming of snow. This too brought me back to my childhood, when the possibility of snow kept me from sleeping. I would use this book as a read aloud d...more
It's nice that we have snow in Chicago today, rather than just snow in a book, albeit a beautiful one. (For some people, this will be all the snow they need, but not this Midwesterner.) This book is a great winter book for encountering or noticing the cycle of snow and its impact on us and the people around us. I'm reminded of the line from one of the prayers in Compline: "Water over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life d...more
Roger Duvoisin uses a graphic design poster look to represent his pictures. The soft blue halftones and brilliant splashes of yellow and red emphasize the gaiety and humor as well as the poetic quality of the text. The bright colors are quite opposite for a winter book but the grey skies in each picture clearly illustrate the true feel for the bitter air. The wonder and delight comes out in the snowfall as they express happiness in the pages of the book. This book expresses how fun and entertain...more
The story is about the coming of winter and all that it brings. It goes over how snow effects people and how seasons are portrayed. This book is older so it goes over some superstitions about predicting the arrival of snow. It displayed the beauty of snow as well as some drawbacks. I enjoyed the different people in the story and how the snow affected them. This book would potentially be in my class library as a tool to explain snow to someone who hadn't experienced it yet but I wouldn't use it d...more
This book begins with a poem about snow, and then the story is told, as the characters anticipate the snow’s arrival. In my opinion the descriptions are more beautiful than the pictures. The illustrations are made with India ink, and this doesn’t give the characters realistic coloring. Maybe the choice of media was to enhance the whiteness and brightness of the snow. Once the snow has covered the town, in its magical white blanket, the children come out to enjoy the day. The policeman’s wife is...more
I saw much educational value in this book. It finally "clicked" with me on how children's literature can be used as a great educational tool. I had to go re-read some of the books so I could identify the instructional perspective.
This book takes readers on a journey through the first big snow. It gives young readers ideas on what to do in the winter and how others embrace the snow and winter; giving them subjective impressions. With this book you can really reflect with a young reader by asking...more
This book takes readers on a journey through the first big snow. It gives young readers ideas on what to do in the winter and how others embrace the snow and winter; giving them subjective impressions. With this book you can really reflect with a young reader by asking...more
While this isn’t my favorite book I have ever read, I think that it does a pretty good job at describing the seasons changing. For example, winter is shown in the illustrations by white snow coating the ground, cars, and houses. On the other hand, snow melting, plants growing, and a robin perching on a tree branch show spring. Also, both the text and illustrations are fairly simple so this book would be good to read to a younger classroom. Also, the seasons changing are always good to teach in k...more
White snow bright snow was the Caldecott Winner of 1948 and since then it is apparent how much books have changed. This book was about the big snowfall and how different people react to it. It shows from the perspective of children and adults of all different occupations. It was an entertaining book but there really wasn't any deeper message which is what should separate good books from great ones. The illustrations were ok, I expected a little more from a Caldecott winner but this book makes it...more
White Snow, Bright Snow tells about a snow storm coming and going in a small town. I found this book to be a little boring. It focused on the same 4 people through out the storm, but nothing really happened except the Police man gets a cold. Some pages rhymed while others didn't. I found myself trying to force the words into a rhythm that didn't exist. I also did not like the colors used in the book. There was so much yellow and orange. It made me feel unsettled and I found myself rarely looking...more
This book did not appeal to me. It did an alright job describing the different seasons and explained what happened to the environment at each stage. The illustrations also matched fairly well with the text. However, this book was too simple and lacked detail. I would only use this book for small children around the age of 6. It would work well to teach them the different seasons, but for anyone beyond that age, the book would be boring and would not present the reader with any new information.
As far as the illustrations go for this book, I did not care for them overall. The pictures were all very dark and had a dreary tone, even thought the story was about children and adults in the snow. I did find it interesting, however, that some pages depicted several different scenes. I liked how the layout was planned because there were sometimes up to four pictures on one page that all shared the dark background. This kept the book interesting for me because it is not something that I would o...more
The illustrator used a contrast of gray and white to represent no-snow and snow/snow flakes, with powerful added highlights in neon yellow, pinkish red and olive green. The result is stunning: the reader might expect the pages to be cold whether the snow gleams white. The story underlines the difference between the adults for whom the snow means work and unpleasantness, and the children who are excited and play outside.
Illustrated by Roger Duvoisin.
Caldecott Medal 1948.
Illustrated by Roger Duvoisin.
Caldecott Medal 1948.
This book won the 1948 Caldecott Award. It starts off with a poem and then the story of winter in a small town, and shows how the weather affects the citizens of the town, namely a farmer, the postman, the policeman and his wife, and of course, the children. Everyone is waiting for the snow to fall, and the story continues as it snows throughout the winter until the snow finally stops and spring arrives. Recommended for ages 3-7, 4 stars.
This book works in perfect harmony with illustration and text. I like that you can see the image then read the text and grasp what the characters think and feel. It is beautifully descriptive in a simple and casual way. The way the words are laid out around the page is unique and it forces your eyes to draws around the pictures to take in everything on each page. loved it, for some reason it made me feel cozy and warm and bring back found memories of fun winter nights.
The main colors in the artwork of this story are black, gray, white, yellow, red and green.
Before reading the story you could ask the children many questions.
1) How do we know if snow is coming?
2) What do we do to get ready for snow?
3) What do we do when it actually snows?
4) What occurs when the snow is actually gone?
This story answers these questions from the viewpoint of the postman, farmer, policeman, wife and child.
Before reading the story you could ask the children many questions.
1) How do we know if snow is coming?
2) What do we do to get ready for snow?
3) What do we do when it actually snows?
4) What occurs when the snow is actually gone?
This story answers these questions from the viewpoint of the postman, farmer, policeman, wife and child.
In this book, a big snow transforms the whole town and affects all the people in it. The adults try to avoid the snow, while the children revel in it. The illustrations, though simple, portray the snowy transition very well. At first the background starts as a dull gray, then as the snowflakes fall, the entire background eventually turns white. The splashes of red and yellow also bring the homes and the people to life.
"White Snow, Bright Snow" is a story about snow. I don't really feel like this would be a book I would share with my class. It isn't exciting and the illustrations are not all that great. It's not that this book is horrible I just don't see a classroom full of students paying much attention to the book. If I had to read it though I would read it during the winter so we could talk about snow in our area.
I liked this story, but I didn't like how some pages were hard to read because the print was black and the pages were gray. I would read this story to my students before we learn about seasons. This is a winter story so I would read this if we were learning about winter. I would let my students discuss a time they expereienced snow and how it made them feel, after I read this book.
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