If Snowflakes Tasted Like Fruitcake

PreS-Gr 2—Hitting the mark with each rhyming couplet, a child of nonspecific gender muses on the possibilities of snowflakes tasting like various foods. "If snowflakes tasted like sugar plums…they'd be dancing in my head. If snowflakes tasted like oatmeal…they would get me out of bed." True to a youthful imagination, the list of potential flavors includes cocoa, chestnuts, gingerbread, peppermint, marshmallows, and more. Previn employs the same technique of collage and paint on board that Ezra Jack Keats used in his classic The Snowy Day, and comparisons will be inevitable. Though the child shown here is not quite as dark skinned as Keats's Peter, the red snowsuit with a pointy cap is almost identical, differentiated only by a decorative pompom and the ends of a fluttering scarf. This stunning tribute is brimming with gentle humor and its own unique take on winter fun.