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The book cover depicts many crystal-white snowflakes in different patterns, shapes, and sizes, against a black background. The title is lettered in blue, pink, orange, yellow, and turquoise letters.

Humans and their Fuzzy Friends in the Snow

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by Rebecca R.

What’s your favorite thing to do when it snows? I love the quiet calm of the first snow of the season. To prepare for that fluffy white stuff to fall from the sky, I read a few snow-forward books for kids and I want to share them with you!

Here are a couple of books from the perspective of animals who love the snow (and some who have to be convinced to love it).

The book cover is a cartoon of the dog, Claude, on skis on the ski slopes, with snow falling and snow-covered purple mountain in the background. Claude is wearing a red sweater with a white dog-bone motif and a red beret, with red ski boots and a black and white spotted dog collar.

Claude in Claude on the Slopes, written and illustrated by Alex T. Smith, sees snow for the very first time and is so excited to have a snow adventure! He goes to the Snowy Mountains Winter Sports Center with his best friend Sir Bobblysock, where they make some snowballs, discover sledding on a tea tray, and try skiing. Sir Bobblysock (who is actually a striped sock) enters a snowman building contest and wins with his snowy sculpture of “One Sock and His Dog.” They meet Sidney Snood who helps them learn how to make a mountain rescue in case of an avalanche. Mr. Snood then teaches Claude how to ski. It takes Claude a little while to really get into it, but as he gains his confidence, he is ready to take on the tallest mountain! He gets up to the top and finds Sir Bobblysock (who is having hot chocolate at the bottom of the mountain) through his binoculars. He shouts “Helloooooo Sir Bobblysock” so loudly that the snow starts to shift a bit under his skis. Can you guess what happens next? To follow more of Claude’s adventures, check out other titles in the “Claude” series.

The cartoon on the book cover depicts a brown bear in a snow drift, with snow on top of his head and his arms crossed. A white duck in a red hat and sweater and a yellow duckling are adjacent.

Like Claude, Duck is so excited that there is a lot of snow outside in All Right Already! A Snowy Story, written by Jory John and illustrated by Benji Davies. He wakes up his friend and next door neighbor Bear to tell him the good news. Bear doesn’t want to go out because it’s too cold, but Duck pushes him out the door anyway and shows him all the fun things to do in the snow. He wants to sled, play tag, and make a “snowbear” and a snow angel. Bear reluctantly begins to share in the snow fun with Duck but he gets wet and cold. Bear sneezes and runs inside. Turns out he now has a cold, and Duck attempts to take care of him but asks too many questions until “all right already!” – he’s done too much. Duck heads home and catches Bear’s cold. What will Bear do when Duck is sick? Have fun in the snow, but take care of yourself and your friends too!

The book cover depicts a street scene, with a taxi, car, and two delivery trucks moving through the snow, shops with pedestrians and a dog walking on the sidewalk in front, and birds perched on overhead power lines above the row of shops. The title "My Winter City" appears as if it was a sign above one of the shops. Snow is falling heavily over the scene, against a blue-white sky.

Humans are adventurous when it comes to exploring our snow-covered surroundings as well. In My Winter City, written by James Gladstone and illustrated by Gary Clement, a boy, his dad, and his dog travel through their city streets in a snowstorm to get to a big sledding hill. The boy notices all the differences the falling snow has on his environment, such as how he can see his breath in the cold and how icicles form. As they make snow angels (like Duck and Bear), he describes the feeling of the snow as “resting on light powder pillows.” The wonderful illustrations echo the visuals, making the reader feel as though they are experiencing this snowy day and all its wonders.

The picture depicts a girl and her grandmother, out walking in a wintry setting, with four bare white trees in the background and some buildings in the distance. The grandmother wears a purple coat and pink scarf and hat; her granddaughter wears a pink coat with a red scarf and hat.

Ten Ways to Hear Snow, written by Cathy Camper and illustrated by Kenard Park, offers another treat for our senses. Lina walks through her neighborhood to her grandmother’s house after a snowstorm. As Lina walks through her quiet neighborhood, she focuses on what she is hearing, the “snyak, snyek, snyuk” of the snow underfoot. She thinks about her grandmother, who is losing her eyesight, and wonders about how she experiences the world. Lina reaches her grandmother’s house, where they cook and talk about how they “hear” snow. Read on to experience the quiet strength of this vivid story.

The book cover depicts many crystal-white snowflakes in different patterns, shapes, and sizes, against a black background. The title is lettered in blue, pink, orange, yellow, and turquoise letters.

Do you ever wonder how all these snowflakes are formed? Find out in Curious About Snow by Gina Shaw. This nonfiction book explains how snow develops, shows you what snowflakes look like under a microscope, and introduces various snowy weather-related events. Maybe Claude should have read this book before venturing out!

Enjoy your time out there, everyone, and remember to come inside at some point for a good story and some hot chocolate.

Rebecca is the Assistant Branch Manager of the HCLS Glenwood Branch. She enjoys creative art projects and taking long walks with her puppy.

The book cover photograph shows a black, blue-eyed, short-haired dog seated with his nose in the air, on a field of lush, bright green grass.

Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass

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The book cover photograph shows a black, blue-eyed, short-haired dog seated with his nose in the air, on a field of lush, bright green grass.

By Julie F.

I fall very easily for stories about humans and their pets, especially when it’s a coming-of-age story. (Think Sterling North’s Rascal or Fred Gipson’s Old Yeller, both of which author Rick Bass loved as a child, and both of which I still own in my childhood copies). Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had isn’t a coming-of-age story, as it was written when the author was in his forties, but it’s still a perceptive and moving look at how a beloved animal can open one’s eyes, create a change in perspective, and forever alter a life. Bass loved and loves every dog he has ever had – that’s clear from his touching narrative about the stray hounds he rescued, Homer and Ann, as well as his amusing recounting of how he couldn’t choose between two pointers in a subsequent litter of Colter’s full siblings (spoiler: he ends up taking both of them home).

Why is Colter “the best” of these? It’s ambiguous – Bass clearly believes that they have a mysterious but immutable bond – but it’s largely based on Colter’s growth from runt of the litter to magnificent, mature sporting dog, and the incomparable feeling Bass has when they are working in tandem to achieve their mutual goal and desire to hunt, the destiny for which he has trained Colter. I’m not a hunter, but his descriptions of what both he and Colter (presumably) felt during training and hunting are breathtaking:

“I think that in those moments, those perfect moments, when we are crossing great fields like that, an observer looking down from a mile or two above – a bird’s-eye view – would not believe that we were earthbound. I feel certain that that observer would see the two animals, man and dog, moving steadily across that prairie – one casting and weaving, the other continuing straight ahead – and would believe that they were two birds traveling in some graceful drift to some point, some location, known surely to their hearts” (95).

A beautiful ode to rural life in Montana, to the changing seasons of a dog’s life, to companionship and love and loss. If you’re a fan of Bass’s work, or just of nature writing in general, I highly recommend this book – it’s a keeper – as well as his look at the first wolf pack to attempt to settle outside of the boundaries of the national parks in Montana after reintroduction, The Ninemile Wolves. Although both are excellent, I rate this one just a little more highly because of the intense personal journey it shares with the reader. For fiction readers, Bass is also the author of several collections of short stories available at HCLS, including In the Loyal Mountains and For a Little While: New and Selected Stories, as well as an essay collection that celebrates some of his mentors, The Traveling Feast: On the Road and At the Table with My Heroes.

Julie is an instructor and research specialist at HCLS Miller Branch. She loves gardening, reading, and all kinds of music.