Children's books for winter ☃️
Can we read? 2025 Special edition on winter
Winter Grace by Patricia Fargnoli
If you have seen the snow
under the lamppost
piled up like a white beaver hat on the picnic table
or somewhere slowly falling
into the brook
to be swallowed by water,
then you have seen beauty
and know it for its transience.
And if you have gone out in the snow
for only the pleasure
of walking barely protected
from the galaxies,
the flakes settling on your parka
like the dust from just-born stars,
the cold waking you
as if from long sleeping,
then you can understand
how, more often than not,
truth is found in silence,
how the natural world comes to you
if you go out to meet it,
its icy ditches filled with dead weeds,
its vacant birdhouses, and dens
full of the sleeping.
But this is the slowed-down season
held fast by darkness
and if no one comes to keep you company
then keep watch over your own solitude.
In that stillness, you will learn
with your whole body
the significance of cold
and the night,
which is otherwise always eluding you.
Into the Snow by Yuki Kaneko, illustrated by Masamitsu Saito (2017)
🍼 Babies & Toddlers (0–3)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
My favorite part of this simple, sweet snow-romp of a book is Saito’s energetic and ultra-cheerful illustrations, rendered with oil pastels, gouache, acrylics, and colored pencils, which express every ounce of the happiness and delight to be found while playing — particularly sledding — in the snow.
There’s not much of a story here — just a little fellow who goes out to find his own fun, and does — but don’t let its simplicity fool you: all you really need is a peek at his gleeful little face to trust that this tale captures, pretty much perfectly, the exuberance, wonder, and deep joy of bailing out at the bottom of a hill after a wild and wonderful ride, surrounded and satisfied by the snow. (Maybe this rhapsodic feeling is only accessible if you live in a place where this is actually possible, but this is the next best thing.)
A Little Like Magic by Sarah Kurpiel (2024)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
Loosely inspired by Kurpiel’s childhood memories, this wonder-filled story is a reminder that stepping into the cold and unknown can actually feel a little… magical.
The reader follows a little girl in her motorized wheelchair as she arrives at an ice-sculpture festival, super unimpressed. Her clothing is uncomfortable, she’s cold, she especially disdains going places she has never been before. These ice sculptures are just going to melt, and then she loses her toy horse, and she. is. over it.
But she and her mom return later in the dark to find her lost item, and everything changes. And this is the part of this tender story I love the most — Kurpiel’s digital artwork bringing this nighttime magic to life. The sculptures glow, the horse is found, and something shifts — the little girl opens up to the beauty around her, and we, reading aloud, remember that there are unexpected and lovely things all around us, everywhere, if we choose to see it.
The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi (2011)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
On the morning that Kikko wakes up to a winter wonderland and her father leaves behind a pie he intended to take to her grandmother, Kikko offers to catch up with him, struggling her way through the quiet world of deep snow. When she sees her father go into a strange house she has never noticed before, she peeks through the window to discover it’s not her father she’d been following, but rather a great big bear.
Thus begins a magical adventure full of incongruous and delightfully bizarre things, like animals who are not only inside a house together, all dressed up and talking, but hosting a tea party. They welcome Kikko as a special guest, eventually assembling a new pie for her grandmother and parading off through the woods together to deliver it.
As a child, I wanted so badly for this kind of magic to be true — Borrowers living in the walls, one day my stuffed animals would speak to me, a whole world of mystic intrigue just waiting inside a large hole in a tree — that I love any narrative that captures that, even a little. Miyakoshi goes beyond a little here and captures a lot — her muted charcoal illustrations lend a dream-like quality to what’s happening to Kikko; her characteristic storytelling holds in perfect balance fascinating possibilities and explanations (in other words: she tells just enough). This is an inviting read full of charm and excitement — the best an escapade can offer, if you ask me.
Lolly on the Ice by Sarah S. Brannen (2025)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
Lolly loves the feel of ice under her skates — when only her dad is watching, she jumps, spins, and flies “like a snowflake in the wind.” But when the audience grows, so does her fear. At a community skating audition, she freezes — too nervous to move — and is given the role of a stationary snowman. She resigns herself to the margins, until another skater gets hurt, and she must summon the hope, courage, and grit to step into the spotlight.
Brannen’s soft, muted watercolor and ink illustrations are a huge part of how tenderly she handles self-doubt — and how honestly she shows that even the quietest or most unsure kid can shine. Lolly trembles and hesitates, she’s absolutely afraid, but she steps forward anyway — not because she’s fearless, but because she’s brave and willing to take a risk to be more fully herself.
For young readers wrestling with stage fright — or anyone who’s ever wondered if they “fit” — this is a lovingly affirming book.
Axle Annie by Robin Pulver, illustrated by Tedd Arnold (1999)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
📚 Middle Grade (9–12)
Bus driver Annie is always cheerful, full of jokes and magic tricks and silly songs, beloved by the kids who ride her bus. Winter “packs a wallop in Burskyville,” and the superintendent of schools relies on Annie to make it up Tiger Hill when the weather is nasty, and Annie always does. This is why the schools in Burskyville never have a snow day. (This was the Madison, Wisconsin of my childhood, let me tell you.)
Shifty Rhodes, the nastiest bus driver of them all, resents that he never gets a snow day and hates Annie’s ability to come through in a pinch — so he decides to do something about it. He teams up with the new owner of the local ski resort to use a snowmaking machine to make conditions on Tiger Hill too tough even for tough-as-nails Annie.
Does this dastardly ploy work? Heck no! Isn’t the first rule of moral tales that goodness always prevails? Yes! Annie does her best to conquer Tiger Hill, but for the first time, she can’t make it — until she feels a push from behind the bus, hops out, and sees all the townsfolk back there giving it their all. (And then Shifty Rhodes gets his, because this wouldn’t be as satisfying a story if the bad guy escaped scot-free.)
Maybe I am wrong about the inability of zany illustrations and slapstick humor to convey deeper truths; who’s to say? Whether or not your readers take note of Annie’s fine character and the power of a strong community is almost beside the point — you’ll all enjoy hearing about brave Axel Annie either way.
Tales for a Winter’s Eve by Wendy Watson (1988)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
There’s not one Wendy Watson book I’m not completely in love with — her warm, adorable line and watercolor illustrations have delighted me since I was a tiny reader sitting on my mom’s lap, listening — but with good reason. If you’re craving a gentle, cozy, fireside sort of read-aloud that will captivate your toddlers and preschoolers, look no further than these four short folktales, just a few pages long apiece.
These aren’t fresh, modern stories, which I mean as a compliment. Rather, these magical, mischievous tales, told to Freddie Fox by his family and friends to lift his spirits after a skiing accident, feel like they’ve been passed down through generations — timeless in that reassuring, “We’ve told this one before, let’s tell it again” way that particularly resonates with the littlest among us (though who among us doesn’t need comforting, no matter our age?)
This one is a little gem.
A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E. Erickson, illustrated by Lawrence Di Fiori (1974)
👨👩👧👦 Family Read-Aloud (all ages)
One chilly night, best friends Warton and Morton enjoy some beetle brittle so wonderful, Warton decides he must set off immediately to bring some to his Aunt Toolia. He straps on his skis and starts out on his journey, only to be captured by an owl. The owl tells Warton he intends to eat him, but not until Tuesday.
Warton’s courage and frankly astounding courtesy in the face of his impending death is downright inspiring, and that may not even be a strong enough word for it: every evening he lights candles, makes a pot of tea, and carries on a warm and friendly conversation with his captor, who, in a surprise twist of events, ends up needing him — and his friendship — in the end.
Di Fiori’s line drawings are few and far between here but add to the charm of this already incredibly charming tale about one frog’s generosity and ingenuity, and the power of kindness to change us all.
Ice Cycle: Poems about the Life of Ice by Maria Gianferrari (2022)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
📚 Middle Grade (9–12)
I’m not going to say I’ve never met a science poetry book I didn’t like, but if I were to say something so definitive, it would be true 😉 Gianferrari’s fantastic poems, which explore ice in all its wild shimmering, cracking, drifting glory, are a wonderful example of why I feel this way. In the right hands — and hers are the right hands — a topic that could be “just weather” is made lyrical, alive, and cool (sorry not sorry).
Couple this with Chen’s Photoshop illustrations, which layer texture and movement so beautifully you can almost hear the freeze and thaw, along with the detailed back matter for kids who want to go deeper, and this is the perfect winter read for current snow-pile engineers and future meteorologists alike. (I am neither, and this book captivated me, so it’s really the perfect winter read for anyone with a breath of curiosity in their body.)
The happiest of winters to you and yours 💙
Sarah
Tea Party in the Snow is one of my favorite winter books of all time! What a fantastic list!
We love TEA PARTY IN THE SNOW! Also, a fellow Borrower believer right here.
Happy winter to you and yours :)