Children's books for winter ❄️
Can we read? Special edition: winter
HAPPY WINTER, THE BEST OF ALL THE SEASONS!
I know, most of you don’t agree with that statement in the slightest, but maybe you enjoy reading about winter, if not actually living in / surviving it? (Pro tip from a Wisconsinite: get outside and sport your way through it. It really does help.)
I hope the following brings you some fresh new reads for you and your family and that if books are the only thing you find to enjoy about the season, you enjoy them to the very utmost 🩵
Good Morning, Snowplow! by Deborah Bruss, illustrated by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson (2018)
If you live, like I do, in a place that averages 53+ inches of snow per year (and many years we see over 100), you get familiar with that most beloved of cold-weather vehicles: the heroic snowplow. Sometimes elusive — because it often comes in the middle of the night, and your only clue might be a quick beam of bright headlights against a wall or the muffled shuffle-and-scrape sound it makes — it’s one of those winter things that holds endless fascination for the littlest kids.
This gentle and quiet — but also pretty interesting — story is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary kiddos who might wonder, who drives the snowplow? What’s that work like? The answers come as one driver as he heads out for his shift, into the night and the dark.
Fancher and Johnson’s acrylic, colored pencil, pen, and collage illustrations are a huge part of the appeal here, as they show, beautifully and accurately, some of the unique challenges of the vital job: deep snow, whiteout conditions, the effort to stay awake.
It’s basically perfect. Highly recommended.
Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee (2003)
“Tracks in the snow. Tracks in the snow. Who made the tracks? Where do they go?” We’ve been reading this book for enough years now that sometimes when my children and I are outside in winter, we’ll repeat these lines to one another, laughing.
It’s hard not to smile when we think of the little star of this title — a girl who one day notices tracks in the snow outside her window. She goes out to explore the tracks — through her yard and garden gate, in and out of rocks, along the pond, across a bridge and into the woods beyond. Eventually she grows cold, “and there’s still no sign of it,” but when she turns for home she realizes (it’s so endearing): the tracks are her own.
This is, in my opinion, the best of Yee’s series of seasonal titles — the prose flows in a way that makes it really pleasurable to read aloud, and the little girl with her bulky winter coat and insatiable curiosity is at her absolute cutest here. I give away or sell a lot of titles, but some I can’t part with because they’ve had a special place in our hearts — this one’s a keeper.
Missing Mittens by Stuart J. Murphy, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (2001)
My children — 9 and 7yo — literally cheer every year when we pull out this book, so beloved is this goofy but deeply enjoyable story about a farmer who awakens one morning to find he’s missing his mittens.
He heads out into the cold to start his chores, checking his various animals — and counting mittens (or, er, missing mittens) along the way. Eventually he finds the culprit — hint: it’s a farm animal that will eat basically anything 🐐 — and his mittens, but the real delight is less in solving the mystery and more, shockingly! in that math, which is all about odd and even numbers.
My kids are well past learning about and recognizing this concept and it’s still a read they truly love, thanks in no small part to its clever story, delightful rhyme, and Karas’ signature gouache, matte medium, and pencil, which never fail (I really mean never).
This is an entertaining (and yes, sneaky but lively!) way to learn about our number system in a silly winter setting.
Good Night, Wind by Linda Elovitz Marshall, illustrated by Maëlle Doliveux (2019)
Wintertime is almost over, and Winter Wind is tired and looking for a comfortable place to sleep. It tries resting in a tree, on a rock, and inside a country inn, only to be ousted wherever it lands. Angry, it rolls across the land, whistling and shrieking, until finally, it finds a little girl in a remote cabin who takes pity on it, and leads it to a nearby cave.
This unique tale, inspired by an old Yiddish story, is full of messages about finding what one needs in unexpected places, but its greatest appeal by far lies in its striking cut-paper illustrations (see below), which are nothing short of outstanding.
Do Like Kyla by Angela Johnson, illustrated by James E. Ransome (1990)
In this gem from Angela Johnson, the reader meets an unnamed little sister as soon as she wakes up. “In the morning my big sister Kyla stands at the window, tapping at the birds. I do like Kyla, only standing on the bed.” She proceeds to do like Kyla all day — getting dressed, eating breakfast, walking to the store — until finally, at bedtime, Kyla says, ‘Birds must be asleep.’ I tap at the window… and Kyla does just like me.”
If it seems straightforward, that’s because it is, and yet there is much to appreciate here — anything Johnson writes is gold, for one thing, and Ransome’s quiet but inviting paintings really complement her warm, sincere storytelling. This is a sweet glimpse into two ordinary lives, but what makes it special is that through the eyes of this little sister, these everyday actions taken one after another offer a welcome perspective: what things look like and how we feel when we love someone.
Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft and Richard G. Van Gelder, illustrated by Helen K. Davie (1997)
If you have a nonfiction lover who’s curious about what animals do in winter, get your hands on this one as soon as you can.
As the days grow short and the night long, curious readers go outside to discover a wide variety of animals migrating, hibernating, and otherwise preparing for winter, all depicted in detail in Davie’s careful watercolor illustrations. Many creatures are familiar — monarchs, bats, deer, foxes — but some are not. (Did you know pikas just chill under piles of rocks and eat fifty pounds of grass before the season is through?!)
This is a less a narrative and more a recounting of, well, what animals do in winter, but it’s no less engrossing for that. This one belongs on the shelf of any curious kiddo (and certainly in any elementary classroom — that goes without saying).
The Sea in Winter by Christine Day (2021)
This engrossing middle-grade novel set in the Pacific Northwest follows ballerina Maisie Cannon, a young Makah girl, as she struggles to cope with an accident that shatters her dream of becoming a dancer.
Day (Upper Skagit) not only beautifully portrays the coastal landscape and its importance to Maisie’s cultural heritage, she deftly explores the complexities of resilience: how our identity and the degree to which we accept ourselves (or not) informs our ability to heal, and how we move forward — however crookedly, however slowly — when we allow ourselves to ask for help amid adversity.
If I have reviewed any of these titles in the past, I’ve linked to those here.
The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth
Winter Story by Jill Barklem (part of the Brambly Hedge seasonal series)
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett
The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett
Rabbit’s Snow Dance by James and Joseph Bruchac
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Cathy Camper
The Winter Bear by Ruth Craft
Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison
An Orange in January by Dianna Hutts Aston
Lemonade for Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Geraldine’s Big Snow by Holly Keller
A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin
Snowsong Whistling by Karen E. Lotz (poetry)
The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi
Winter Waits by Lynn Plourde (part of the lovely Mother Earth series, which are out of print and pricey but worth checking for in your library catalog)
Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root
Axle Annie by Robin Pulver
Snow by Cynthia Rylant
Before Morning by Joyce Sidman
Brave Irene by Willliam Steig
The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Poetry
Iguanas in the Snow: And Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la Nieve: Y Otros Poemas de Invierno by Francisco X. Alarcon (one of a seasonal bilingual poetry series)
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers
It’s Snowing! It’s Snowing! Winter Poems by Jack Prelutsky
Winter Poems selected by Barbara Rogasky
Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman
Especially for babies and toddlers
Pippa and Pelle in the Winter Snow by Daniela Drescher
In My Den by Sara Gillingham
Oh! by Kevin Henkes
Walking in a Winter Wonderland as sung by Peggy Lee
Winter by Gerda Muller (wordless but this seasonal series is wonderful)
Rabbit’s Gift by George Shannon
Snow by Uri Shulevitz
Mittens and Mukluks! Winter in Alaska by Joni Spiess
For older readers or read-alouds
The Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-El
Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed
A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E. Erickson
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Snow and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George
Winterfrost by Michelle Houts
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
Astrid the Unstoppable by Maria Parr
Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner
Skating Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Everything else
When Winter Comes: Discovering Wildlife in Our Snowy Woods by Aimée M. Bissonette
The Snow Dancer by Addie Boswell
The Hat by Jan Brett
The Mitten by Jan Brett
Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett
Snowball Moon by Fran Cannon Slayton
Old Bear and His Cub by Olivier Dunrea
The Snow Child by The Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Bernadette Watts
Angelina’s Ice Skates by Katharine Holabird
Winter Days in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (one of the My First Little House Books)
Winter on the Farm by Laura Ingalls Wilder (one of the My First Little House Books)
Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluk
A Day So Gray by Marie Lamba
The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren
The Snow Child retold by Freya Littledale
Under the Night Sky by Amy Lundebrek
Snow Lion by David McPhail
Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner (part of the four-book, nonfiction Over and Under seasonal series)
Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman
First Snow by Bomi Park
The First Snowfall by Anne Rockwell
Poppleton in Winter by Cynthia Rylant (early reader)
Mice Skating by Annie Silvestro
Mouse and Mole: A Winter Wonderland by Wong Herbert Yee (early reader)
Some Snow Is… by Ellen Yeomans
And here is a printable PDF of this booklist, just for you 🖨️
As always, I have a Bookshop.org list, Books for winter, in case you’d like to visually browse and/or support this newsletter in another way — I get a tiny commission if you use this link to make a purchase.
Wishing you the happiest of winters, wherever you are,
Sarah
Katy and the Big Snow is so so good. We’ve been reading the Secret of Helmersbruk Manor while on holiday and enjoying it.
What a stellar, knockout round up!