How to Catch a Snowman

How to Catch

by Adam Wallace, Andy Elkerton (Illustrator)

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling How to Catch series comes a new winter adventure!

Our heroes' entry for the snowman contest has magically come to life—and ran away! Can YOU help catch it? Get ready for snow much fun as you travel through a winter wonderland with running, skating, and bouncing through trap after trap to catch the snowman and claim the winning prize. Will the snowman teach our heroes a lesson they'll never forget? Who snows!

I don't thumpity-thump or give warm hugs—
that's for my snowman friends to do.
Clever kids will try to trap me,
but who will catch me...YOU?

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Christmas, Holiday, Fantasy, Fiction, Humor

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2018

About the author

Adam Wallace is a New York Times, USA Today and Amazon Bestselling author of the How to Catch series!
Adam's passion is to bring excitement and energy and humour and joy to children (of all ages!) through his books and videos.
He spends his non-writing time thinking about writing and going to as many live music shows as he can. He's also teaching himself piano, and plays golf too.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read all but 2 of the books in the 'How to Catch' series and I think they are running out of ideas. The kids seemed to have caught the snowman here, but he was able to bust out because, you know, that's the story. The computer art is colorful and pretty and the pace is fast, but if you read one of these books, they are the same.

The one good trap the kids set up, would have worked and the reason it didn't was silly. They didn't really have many good ideas for traps in this one.

If my nephew were still young, he would still enjoy it, I bet. It's about a snowman, which he loved snowmen years ago and it's action packed, which he enjoyed. My guess is he would love it back then and who knows what star rating he would give it. He was unpredictable. He's too old for this now and I miss reading to him.

It is about snow and that's something we rarely see here in MD and I sure do miss it. It doesn't feel like winter without snow. I miss winter. I need a book called, how to make it cold and snow.

[Deacon Tom F. (Recovering from a big heart attack) · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute and wonderful.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Wallace does it again!
A magical snowman comes to life and the kids will do whatever it takes to trap him:
From a trampoline to ice hockey, a snowglobe to a summer get-away, these clever kids will do what they can to catch their snowman, but is he just to clever for them?
Find out!
A great read-aloud for Story Times and families, perfect for this wintry weather; Also provides some great inspiration and S.T.E.A.M. ideas on how to build your own snowman traps!

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a cute holiday read for my children. They loved it.

[Joshua Gross · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm annoyed by this book for a few reasons, but mostly because of its blatantly derivative nature and lack of imagination. This books makes a reference to Frozen while having nothing to do with the movie or with Disney, and it also references Frosty the Snowman, both more popular and interesting versions of the living snowman concept. This one just runs away from children while they try to trap him. It's dull, its repetitive, it is deeply lacking in imagination, and if I was a kid I would be insulted if someone gave me this book. I was also annoyed that after reading this book I couldn't even put it on Goodreads because it wasn't there, so I had to create a listing for it just so I could record the fact that I read and disliked this book. The illustrations are ok.

[Craig Schorling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute book with some fun rhyming. The kids always enjoy these "How to Catch" books.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

My students loved it.

[Emily Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not happy with this book. It did not give a happy joyful Christmas feeling when reading it. When the kids made the snowman they just wanted to play and it was not that snowman’s desire to have anything to do with the children that made it. Pass for reading it to my kids.

[Jenn Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute book! My daughter loved it and she really liked the illustrations! Would recommend.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, a clever snowman (who is not Frosty the snowman, nor Olaf), evades capture. The kids build elaborate and imaginative traps for him, but each time, the snowman wiggles free. It has an enjoyable ending which I found a little different than previous how-to-catch books that I have read in the series. I did like how the author alludes to Frosty the snowman and Olaf in this story, without mentioning either by name.

[Kathryn (Dragon Bite Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review originally published on my blog, Nine Pages .

This story plays with modern, living snowman “lore,” specifically referencing without naming Frosty of Rankin and Bass’ movie and Olaf of Disney’s Frozen. That was almost my favorite and least favorite part of the book—the references to other snowmen. The midnight snow star is new. The flying is new too. Why the kids want to catch a snowman is never really addressed; though it says in Goodreads’ description that the kids have built him for entry into a contest, I did not pick up on that in reading through the text; maybe if I examined the illustrations more carefully I would have done, but I often read these upside down for the first or second time. The kids’ traps all fail. The snowman is never caught but he creates a larger than life, snow trophy for them—which makes more sense if the kids’ first ambition had been to win a trophy. Some of the rhyming seemed forced, and I’m not overly fond of the direct address to the audience format.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

HOW TO CATCH A SNOWMAN is a picture book that speaks from the perspective of a snowman as children try to catch him. Unlike other books in the series, a snowman isn't really mythical, and instead, it tries to play on mythical snowmen like Frosty and Olaf. However, it falls a little flat for me and the traps seem a bit forced, with a couple of them being things that should appeal to the snowman like fruits and veggies (maybe because they can make noses?).

The illustrations are great with lots of color and cute children. The storyline was a bit disappointing as it seemed to generally fall flat. It's not clear why they were trying to trap the snowman as they are not so elusive and can easily be made (vs the other books in the series with mythical creatures).

Overall, I do give it some stars for the illustrations, which are high quality, but the storyline and writing fall a little flat. I would skip this one and go for others in the series! Please note that I received a review copy through Sourcebooks Early Reads. All opinions are my own.

[Carina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm 4 and got this book for Christmas from my great-grandma. I liked this book so much that as soon as my mom finished reading it to me, I told her to read it to me again. My mom, on the other hand, thought it was rude and a bit sneaky for the authors to refer to Olaf, and she thought the book was too difficult for little kids to understand. Much of what happens is told through the pictures rather than the text, and it really didn't explain why the kids were trying to trap the snowman or why he was running away. I guess that's what the series is all about, but the text wasn't that well done to pull the concept off. Leprechauns and tooth fairies are things one might try to catch, but snowmen? Just a ploy to sell holiday-themed books.

[Yaritza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the illustrations. The illustrations were adorable and colorful. A snowman is created by a group of children for a contest. A snowman usually comes to life with a hat, but in this book he comes to life with a snow star. Which many have posted that it references Olaf from Frozen. The children create many funny traps to try to catch the snowman. He was so smart that he beat them at their own game. At the end they never catch him, but he leaves them an amazing gift. Overall, the book is cute. Received the book from Sourcebooks early reads to give an honest review.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lessons on how to Catch a Snowman

This is part of a series on how to catch something. This version is on how to catch a snowman. I haven't read the others so I don't know how the other versions are. I didn't find this one on catching snowmen that cute. it was ok.

[Mrs. Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

How to Catch a Snowman is a cute little book. Told from the perspective of a snowman trying to evade capture by a group of kids, it has nice rhythm and some clever comparisons to other famous snowmen in popular culture. My son read this one before me and immediately reported that this title took a few jabs at Frosty and Olaf, but the story certainly stands on its own and makes for a great winter's night bed time tale.

[Jiffy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This really just feels like a money grab. "How can we make money at Christmas?!? I know, let's spend 5 minutes writing a book based on an established formula with nothing interesting to add, bad rhyming and half-assed illustrations and then just sell it as a Christmas exclusive!" Not impressive at all.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is going right into the donation pile. Why? In our house we don't keep books that aren't entertaining to both the child as well as the adult doing the reading. This one definitely didn't live up to the requirement.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book on how the kids are trying to catch the snowman. They are creative but he always escapes their traps.

I enjoyed this. A good book for a small child. The creativeness of the traps are wonderful. The illustrations are gorgeous.

[HappyGay Bakunzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Illustrations are the only reason for the three stars I'm giving. I payed $10.00 for this book for my boys and after two pages they were bored. So was I. It didn't rhyme or anything. But the pictures were good I will give credit where it is due. But the story seemed lacking and thrown together.

[Sarah Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the reference to frozen. I like the books that are told from whatever the kids are trying to catch better. This happens to be told from the snowman. It was cute and has familiar phrasing in it from Frosty.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raised glitter lettering on front cover. The children are setting traps for the snowman throughout. Rhyming lines, bright colors and fun illustrations. Perfect for ages 4 and up. I received a copy from Sourcebooks early review program.

[Sherri Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad!

[Marcie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn’t finish it as the rhymes we too forced for my taste.

[jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

This a horrible book. The writing is poor and the message is rude spirited to the kids depicted in the book. It seems as if this being a Black Friday special by Barnes and Noble is a way to dump it

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this to a group of 3 and 4 yo. They seemed to like it ok. While I got all the references to Frosty, I am not sure they did. The illustrations were nice and the kids enjoyed the different traps.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute winter story that my PreK class loved! Looking forward to checking out the other books in this series.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute story.

[Cyndy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What are some of the things you can try, if you want to catch a snowman

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this story was all over the place and I didn’t follow a lot of it, until I went back and read the summary. I had no idea what was going on or why they were trying to catch him or how the traps worked or anything. It was not apparent that the kids had made him and there was a contest. There was a comment later about them having put a carrot nose on him and I was like what??

It operated under the idea that a snow star brought him to life on a moonlit snowy night.

He avoided a net of scarves and being shoveled into an ice hockey goal on a frozen pond. And then he ended up at this large beach background set up and all of a sudden he flew away. Which begged the question of why he didn’t just fly away every time. There was also a metal cage suspended by rope and I’m like where did these kids get a cage and how they get it out there??

It ended with him leaving a gigantic snowman with the snow kids making him and they won first place. He got away free as he wanted to be but made sure they won. The sculpture was like as big as the building.

I found the rhymes and wording weak and didn’t like the illustration of the kids.