SNOW DAY
written by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Hideko Takahashi
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2001
also available to schools through Scholastic Book Club

Cupboard carousing.
Hot chocolate. Mushy marshmallow dunk.
Popcorn, peanuts, pretzels.
Chocolate chips minus the cookies.
Yum! Smunch! Crunch!
Snow day, munchy snow day.

About the Book

The family in Snow Day not only raids the cupboards and enjoys snacks on the day they are snowbound together, but they also play dress-up becoming a princess and a dragon, build a card castle in front of the fireplace when the power goes out, bundle up and head outside to make snow angels and a snow fort, climb into their flannel footie PJs, and much more. The family finally nestles together with a rocking chair, books, and quilts at the end of the story:
Snow day melts to dreams.
Snow day, sleepy snow day.

Reviews

Publisher's Weekly . . . Plourde's snappy verse, with its brief phrases and effective use of onomatopoeia, convey the active pace from wake-up to wind-down. Takahashi's bold acrylics feature the wide-eyed, exuberant brother and sister in crisp winter landscapes and cozy scenes by the hearth.

Children's Literature . . . Magic lies between the pages of this charming picture book. The winter wonderland is created when an overnight snowstorm blankets the world and the children of the family wake up to a snow day. Large, easy-to-read text vividly portrays the day of magic and memories from early morning rising to a warm bath and snuggly bed at night. Memories are created when the children start their snow day by eating a large breakfast of steaming oatmeal and then huddle together by the warm fireplace for a game of checkers and Old Maid. Cupboard carousing finds hot chocolate to drink and lots of munchies like popcorn, peanuts and pretzels. Outside there is lots of fun in the snow—go sledding and a snowman and even a snow tunnel to crawl through. Bright, full-page illustrations reveal the magic of the day and add dimension to the story's characters. This book is sure to be a family favorite with both young and adult readers. It can be an aid to establishing family traditions in young families.

School Library Journal . . . An appealing succession of activities on a snowy day results in a memorable family adventure. Beginning with a small girl awakened by her mother to a winter wonderland, this unpretentious book is a series of vignettes filled with the many diversions of a snowstorm that interrupt the normal flow of daily life. Various activities take place inside and out on this momentous occasion: reading books, playing cards, sledding, shoveling, eating, and sitting in front of a roaring fire. All of the senses are satisfied in this simple tale of old-fashioned fun. Onomatopoetic wordplay reveals all the varied sounds that are part of the unforgettable storm, while the changeable day is defined by numerous adjectives: yummy, fierce, playful, bundly, shivery, snuggly, and sleepy, to name a few. Warm, clear illustrations in acrylic reveal a close, loving family of four enjoying one another's company during a special day packed with shared amusements. The large, double-spread paintings make the book ideal for group reading. The story will evoke pleasant memories in adults and heighten the seasonal enjoyment in children.

Kirkus . . . This picture book will challenge, and likely enthrall, young readers with its jagged cadence and wealth of imaginary words, all the while soothing them with Takahashi's artwork, which, despite the clarity of its color and lines, has an air-brushed softness. The story follows a young girl and her brother on a snow day. Inside the house, all is snuggly; outside, all is blustery: "Wooooo-ooooo! / Wild, whirling wind / Crashes limbs to lines. / Lights dance. Flick-a-lick. / Lights die. Flick-a-flooo." When the storm passes, the family heads outdoors. "Snow day walk. / Sluggingly, trudgingly slow. / Snow day shovel. / Grunt, push, pick up, pwoosh." Not all is drudge, as there are sleighs to be ridden and snow angels to be swept. The wind-down is as tender as a lullaby.

Honors

Los Angeles Times Best Children's Book, 2002

Learning Activities

· Add a new scene to the Snow Day book. Think of another activity that the family could do on a snowy day—go snowmobiling, put on a family skit, have a snow day picnic by the fireplace—whatever you can think of. Then tell or write the words to go with the new scene. Try to make the words sound poetic; and so rather than using long, complete sentences like "The family went for a bumpy ride on a snowmobile," you might say "Bumpity-bump snowmobile ride." After you write a new scene for Snow Day, then draw a picture to go with the scene.

· Notice the title letters on the cover of Snow Day. The art director is the person at the publishing company who is in charge of designing picture books, including the style of letters/font for the title. I LOVE the snowflake letters on the cover of Snow Day—they are a perfect match for that book, but snowflake letters would certainly have looked funny on the cover of my Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud book. The Pigs book actually has a hotsy-totsy font which is funny-looking, ballooned style letters which are a perfect match for the Pigs book. Look at the cover of my Wild Child book. Do you think the style of letters for that book would have looked good on the Snow Day book? I don't think so—they are called centaur letters which are a perfect match for the autumn, set-in-nature Wild Child book. Gather some picture books and notice the style of letters on each of their covers. Do you think the lettering works for each book? Why or why not? Why do you think the art directors chose the style and color of lettering that they selected for each book? Design a cover for a story that you have written and create letters (handwritten or typed—choose a font from a computer) in a style that matches what your story is about.

Lynn Plourde and her snow lady friend

· Make a snow creature the next time you have some sticky snow. Don't just make a traditional snowman—try something new and different. See the snow lady that I made in my backyard (complete with pine cone earrings). I've also had fun making a snow bunny with my kids (using sticks to make whiskers and adding red food coloring inside the ears—we diluted the food coloring in water and patted the colored water onto the inside of the bunny's ears with old mittens). We've also made a snow rainbow—piling the snow into a hill, smoothing out the front and drawing lines in the snow with our mittens for the different parts of the rainbow, and then adding different colors of food coloring for each section of the rainbow. Maybe you could make a snow teddy bear or snow dinosaur or snow car or whatever snow creature you can think of—have fun!

· I call Snow Day a MOOD STORY. You'll notice that, unlike many of my other picture books such as Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud and Wild Child, Snow Day doesn't have a problem in the story. I don't even name the characters—they could be any family. What was most important when I was writing Snow Day was to capture the mood, the feeling for a snowy day. I just told about different parts or scenes for a snowy day, not using complete, regular sentences, but rather short, descriptive phrases (Plumpy pumpkin muffins . . . Lights dance. Flick-a-lick . . . Stomp, clomp indoors). I tried to create "word pictures" so that readers could see exactly what I meant in each scene. Try creating your own "Mood Story." For younger children (up to 2nd grade) with the help of a grown-up, make a picture of a ladder. Then write the topic for your DAY STORY (such as, Beach Day, Circus Day, Camping Day, Field Trip Day) at the top of the ladder. Then make each rung on the ladder be a different part of that special day (such as, for Beach Day—water fun, beach fun, picnic time, etc.)—have only 3-5 parts/rungs on the ladder. Then collect and write words in the space under each rung. And so for the "picnic" part, you might write: Sandy, ham-y, cheesy sandwiches/Frosty, bubbly orangey pop/ Crunchy, crumbly, BBQ chips/ and so on… Collect words under other rungs and then put all the parts together to make your own DAY (Mood) STORY. For older children (3rd grade on up), create a MOOD STORY using a web. Put the topic for your story in the middle of the web—use any experience that you can create a vivid word picture for, such as: Soccer, Fourth of July Parade, Family Reunion, Christmas Concert, or whatever you can think of (hobbies, sports, and special events make great mood stories). Around the middle of the web, make medium-sized circles and put your parts of the special event in those circles (and so, for parade, your medium circles might be Crowd, Fire Engines, Clowns, Marching Band, etc.—5-8 medium circles work well). Then around each medium-sized circle, write/brainstorm descriptive words that go with that part (and so, for the clown part, you might write words like "red, rubbery nose" and "purple, polka-dotted, baggy suit" and so on. Then turn your web into a mood story like Snow Day writing it out like a poetic story. Read it aloud to see how it sounds and if you want to make any changes in it. You might rearrange the order for the parts of your story. You might use a thesaurus to help you come up with better describing words (such as, "nibble" for "eat," or "toasty" for warm," or "humongous" for "big"). After you finish improving/revising your story, add a beginning and end (which may be as simple as "Hooray! The parade begins!" for a beginning and "So soon—the parade ends!" for an ending). After you finish your mood story, you might want to type it and then draw simple pictures around the border of your story (such as, different-colored balloons for a parade mood story). One final option to bring your mood story to life would be to create a PowerPoint or other multimedia presentation for your mood story adding images, sound effects, music, and more (Thanks to Mrs. Merrill and her 2001-02 fifth grade students from Winthrop Grade School for sharing their wonderful PowerPoint presentations for each of their mood stories with me—great idea & kudos!).

Story Behind the Story

Lynn's house on April 1st (no joke) 2001

Snow Day is based on a combination of many wonderful memories that I have of snowy days in Maine—ones I enjoyed as a child, as a parent, and as an educator in schools. As a grown-up, I STILL get excited when there's a big snowstorm and schools are cancelled and I get to spend a "lazy" day home with my family. It feels like the world stops for a day, and we get to take a break from the usual busy-ness of our lives and spend a special day together—playing games, reading books, stepping into the winter wonderland scene that Nature painted for us. Even though snow days have changed since I was a kid; back then it seemed like we had a lot more snow—it reached half-way up the telephone poles (or maybe it just seemed that way since I was little). Or then again, maybe things haven't changed (see photo).

The illustrator of Snow Day is Hideko Takahashi. She grew up in a part of Japan that did not have snow. I was told by my editor that Hideko had never seen snow before she agreed to illustrate my story; and so, then, she visited the mountains of California to see what snow looked like. I'll admit that her lack of snow experience worried me a little bit since I've always lived in Maine and have had plenty of first-hand snow adventures. In fact, when I saw the black-and-white sketches for Snow Day, I saw that Hideko only had it snowing on about half of the pages of the book. I told my editor that I'd love to see more snow (since a "snow day" in Maine lasts at least a full-day and sometimes two or more days!). There was no need to worry—Hideko added more snow in the final illustrations—outside the windows, piled up in snow banks, and more. My favorite illustration that Hideko created in Snow Day is the one where the girl and boy are looking out the window and the power goes out; Hideko shows it snowing sideways—just like a true Nor'easter snowstorm here in New England. Hideko's illustrations have such kid-appeal and look deceptively simple (with basic colors and shapes), but they are filled with fun angles and perspectives and amazing details (those cards look like real playing cards and the braided rug is so textured you want to touch it). I'm so glad that Hideko Takahashi discovered snow and used her talents to bring it to life in Snow Day.

Lynn's mother, Charlene Plourde, celebrating Halloween with her grandchildren.

I dedicated Snow Day to my mother, Charlene Ambrose Plourde. She best represents the "spirit" of a snow day for me. This book celebrates special family moments and togetherness. My mom has always created wonderful family memories—gathering everyone together for big holiday feasts, playing family card games for hours, and making special family memories (picking berries, staying at camp, going to a fair).

Lynn's daughter & mother celebrated their June birthdays (one turned 16, the other 70) by having 2nd holes pierced in their ears.