The Snowflakes

Children's Literature - Paula McMillen

This tale about the three friends, Beak the puffin, Velvet the zebra, and Bamboo the panda, is the most recent installation of the "Bamboo and Friends" series, this time focusing on snow. The heat in the forest makes Beak want to go off and find some cool snow, but first he has to tell his two friends, neither of whom know anything about it, what snow is like and why it can be fun. Even though Beak convinces his friends how wonderful the snow would be, they realize he can't bring any back because it would just melt. The story line is almost non-existent and is only minimally supplemented by facts, inserted in smaller text, about the freezing temperature of water and the hexagonal shape of snowflakes. There are more "Fun Facts" in the back of the book—which range from the factual to folklore—as well as information to find on the FactHound Website, where more books and resources about weather are found. The illustrations, on the other hand, are everything you could want in a children's leveled picture book—bright, full-page color renderings of the characters, their surroundings, and their imaginings, including one nice two-page spread of snowflakes. The whimsical drawings extended from the endpapers through the title page as well and would certainly attract and engage a young child while someone read to them. While you might buy this book for the artwork, there are numerous other books appropriate for this age group, both fiction and nonfiction, that deal with snow and provide higher quality story and text.