Snowy

by Berlie Doherty, Keith Bowen (Illustrator)

Snowy

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Berlie Doherty née Hollingsworth is an English novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for children's books, for which she has twice won the Carnegie Medal.She has also written novels for adults, plays for theatre and radio, television series and libretti for children's opera.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her 1992 picture book Snowy British children's author Berlie Doherty (who has been awarded two Carnegie Medals for Dear Nobody and Granny was a Buffer Girl) does a decently, does a very nicely informative textual job showing how young protagonist Rachel permanently resides with her parents on what is known as a narrowboat (a living space that is small, a bit cramped but to and for Rachel also cozy, familiar and indeed her proverbial home sweet home). And with said boat permanently docked on the shoreline of a river, Snowy has Doherty demonstrating that Rachel's domicile is also her family's main place of business, as the narrowboat is used to ferry paying passengers on river excursions with the help of a large and white working boat horse (named Snowy and hence of course the book title) pulling the narrowboat along on a shoreline path beside the river, with Rachel, her father and the paying customers in the boat and with the mother quietly leading the gentle and obedient Snowy along on a leisurely ambling walk (and with Keith Bowen's accompanying often full page paintings visually showing that Snowy is most likely a Shire, a draught horse considered the largest and most massive horse breed in the world, known both for its strength and also for its peaceful and gentle behaviour and disposition, and that yes, white is also one of the most common coat colours for the Shire breed).

Now generally speaking, Snowy presents a sweetly gentle text from Berlie Doherty's pen (perhaps a bit simplistic at times, and I do wonder why Rachel is shown as at first not understanding and being emotionally upset regarding not being able to take Snowy to school for show and tell, as really, Snowy is so huge that for me, Rachel should obviously realise right from the onset that school is no place for a large draught horse), but basically Snowy is a lovely and tenderly caressing little story about how Rachel and her family live and how they also make their living with their narrowboat and their horse, with Bowen's artwork providing a lush and descriptive, aesthetically delightful visual mirror to and for Doherty's printed words. But well and a wee bit unfortunately, albeit that my inner child totally and certainly finds Snowy textually wonderful and also the type of horse-themed picture book she would have absolutely adored during her (during my) actual childhood, my adult reading self would definitely want a bit more factual background information and details on narrowboats and on draught horses like Shires, probably not in the text proper of Snowy, but indeed, that an added author's note and if Berlie Doherty would also include a list of books for further reading on narrowboats and draught horses, yes, this would definitely be appreciated by me as an adult reader and would up my rating for Snowy from four to five stars.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book, which shows children the different ways people live, such as Rachel who lives on a narrow boat and has a horse, Snowy, to pull the boat and take people on trips. It also touches on bullying when Rachel isn't able to take Snowy to school when other people take their pets in, as she is a working horse, but her peers laugh at her. Then, after visiting Rachel's boat and Snowy one day, they are all in awe of her. It could be used to talk about different animals (linking to science), particularly working animals, exploring the different jobs they do, and pets and children could do their own pet project on either a pet they have or on their favourite animal. They could also think about the different places/ways people can live. The illustrations are very detailed and life-like, reflecting the gentle nature of the story. I think the book would be best to read with Year 1 to Year 4.

[Albana Bregu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book for children in KS2. It can show children images that they might try in Art classes; PSHE to value personal identities and possession. This book talk about a girl named Rachel that loves her place and her horse but feels disappointed to not show to her classmates.
Can be used as a circle time where children talk about their favourite things, that develops their speaking and listening skills; take turning and being kind and polite to each other.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was about a horse