Who Will Make the Snow?

Gr 2-4–In this charming illustrated chapter book about woodland creatures, a family of moles is celebrating the birth of their 13th child, a daughter. The family follows traditional roles with the father working as a newspaper reporter and the mother caring for the large family. The mole children have many escapades through the seasons, such as hatching a hawk egg, discovering how to sled, and making jam. In roughly 250 words per page, and chapters that act more as vignettes than as stories that tie together, the story is mostly how the woodland creatures children play with each other and interact with adults throughout the community. The illustrations, done largely with layers of colored pencil shading, add depth to the pleasant world of the woodland creatures’ small town. Translated from Ukrainian, the language and the lifestyle in the book feel more small-town European than urban American.