Best in Snow

PreS-Gr 1—In this visually stunning tribute to winter weather, Sayre explores the water cycle through photography and verse. In the opening lines, a freeze and a breeze combine to produce feathery snowflakes that drift down from the sky and "land on a squirrel's nose." Flowing from page to page, the alliterative rhyming text describes the characteristics and behavior of the frozen precipitation. Evocative photos of winter landscapes and wildlife quietly capture the serene beauty of a forest blanketed in snow. "Snow sails" around an orange-beaked female cardinal, and "it settles" on a scattering of fallen brown leaves. Coming full circle, a freeze and a breeze conjure a storm and it snows once again, frosting bare branches with sparkling white. Sayre's simple text and in particular her eye-catching photos celebrate the wonder and magic of the natural world. Appended back matter that explains the snowflake's cyclical journey from lakes and rivers up to the clouds and down to earth again will further pique readers' curiosity, along with the accompanying suggested reading list.