Today Is Cold

Children's Literature - Jean Boreen

Part of the "Pebble Plus" series, this book helps very young readers understand the concept of "cold." Each book in the series begins with a chapter defining the season or the time when one might experience, for example, "cold." The chapters that follow discuss what one wears on a cold day--a coat--and what people can do on a cold day--go skating. A fourth chapter than asks "How's the Weather?" and follows it up with a simple statement: "Today is cold. What will the weather be like tomorrow?" The entire text is simply written, often with sentences beginning with we followed by a verb, allowing young readers to understand basic subject-verb sentence patterns with a final prepositional phrase to add some description to each sentence. Full page pictures match the descriptive sentences throughout the book and will be easy for young readers to respond to and identify with, whether they are reading the book to themselves or having it read to them. A glossary of words at the end of the book provides the necessary vocabulary to support the learning of young children, and sections entitled "Read More" and "Internet Sites" offer additional information to help understand "cold." This is a good basic text for young readers.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-These slim books offer basic information about climate and weather and how they affect children's activities. Each title is divided into four short chapters, with two to four lines of text per left-hand page that faces a full-page, stock color photograph. There is some repetition: "A coat keeps me warm on a really cold day" (Cold); "I wear a heavy coat on snowy days" (Snowy). Also, no distinction is made between cool days and cold days, which may be confusing to some readers. The photos show young children of various ethnic groups. Additional.-Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.