Toby and the Snowflakesby Julie Halpern
illustrated by Matthew Cordell
(husband and wife writing team)
2004
Toby's best friend has moved away yesterday and he is sad. He's left only with his friend's baseball glove. When he goes outside (after bundling up with scarf, hat, mittens and coat) to check the mailbox one snowflake drifts by (a magical chance meeting) The snowflake introduces himself and Toby proceeds to make some new, albeit cold friends. A day later when the snow begins to melt and the snowflakes give Toby a simple life lesson... "We snow, we disappear, we come back again. It is the nature of the snowflake." Nature of the snowflake, indeed it is the nature of all living things-the meaning of life!!
This book is a treasure and if you have little ones still at home, go get it from the book store or the library and read it tonight while there is still snow on the ground. Thank you to Julie and Matthew for an life-affirming picture book!! While searching around on Cordell's website I see he has illustrated quite a few other books including Trouble Gum, another new favorite of mine. Check out his website here and his wife, Julie Halpern's here. She is a fellow elementary librarian and they live in Chicago. This is their first book together but I'm hoping for many more!!
I read this all week with pre-k through 2nd grade and I could have read it to all classes and had them get something out of it. We discussed The Main Idea of the story: friendship and why it is a fiction book: the snowflakes speak to Toby-big red flag:) I paired it with another great snow book; Snow Sounds by David A. Johnson. I can't believe Toby was published in 2004 and it is now, let's see, 2010 but I guess the time was right!! Great, great book!!!
Happy Reading!!
10 comments:
Rats! Our library doesn't have this!
I love the quote you chose. Thank you for sharing these gems of wisdom.
I haven't seen this one before...I am getting out all my snow books for a second grade unit next week - it's amazing how many there are!
A new one for me - but perfect for us right now as we've had the most snow we've had in years, and the kids are loving it!
It kind of reminds me of the Frosty theme, but a little bit of a different take. :)
Margo
http://margodill.com/blog/
A snowflake that talks. I'd have a hard time catching one of those on my tongue. Would feel kind of bad about it. We'll have to check our library and see if they have a copy. Thanks for the introduction.
Sounds neat. Have you read Snowflake Bentley to them? A good nonfiction companion. We're so snow-deprived around here so we live vicariously through snow books!
Love it, we have just had a fortnight of snow in the UK, and more is forecast, this will be perfect reading material!
I am so taken with this book from your excellent post; thank you! I am beginning to make lists of books new to me by themes so I will have them to give my grandson who is nine months old. I really like the illustration on this one as well as the 'lessons' you note. Again, thank you!
Sounds like a great book! Thanks for the review. I'll have to see if our library has it.
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