14 December 2013 BIG SNOW by Jonathan Bean, Farrar Straus Giroux, September 2013, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-374-30696-0 

"Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder

Where it's so white as snow"

-- Red Hot Chili Peppers

"'Mom,' said David, 'do you think it will snow taller than the grass?'

"'I think so,' said Mom.  'Why don't you help clean the bathrooms while you wait to find out.'

"So David helped Mom clean.  He put on the big yellow gloves.  He sprayed the cleaner.  He scrubbed with the heavy brush.

"But then the suds, white and fluffy, made him think of snow. 

"So David decided to check the weather.

"The flakes were lying, white and fluffy."

I just love the comfort, the gentle mischievousness, and the wonder that permeates BIG SNOW.  On the title page, David is standing in his backyard, hand grasping the string of his red sled, not a flake of snow yet in sight.  So he retreats to the house where his mother provides a practical activity (first, baking cookies; next, scrubbing the bathroom; then, changing the sheets) that helps him pass the time until he remembers the arriving snow storm, abandons the activity, and races outside, yet again, to take measure of the snow as it steadily covers his world. 

What is really funny here in the storytelling is that the text plays it straight, giving us the impression that David is systematically and efficiently holding up his end of completing the household chores.  Meanwhile, the illustrations show us the real story -- that of David making one mess after another which it is to Mom to clean up when David heads outside for the latest update on the accumulating snow.  The story concludes happily when, at dusk, Dad returns home from work and he and Mom take David out into the now-knee-deep blanket of snow.

Or, actually, the story ends on the copyright page, at the end of the book, when the trio is sitting around the table with hot beverages and cookies.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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