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Snowmen All Year

by Caralyn Buehner
32p. 978-0-80373-383-1.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 1—"I love to build a snowman/On freezing winter days./But when the sun is bright and warm/My snowman melts away./There's nothing but a puddle/When my snowman disappears./If only he were magic/And could stay with me all year!" With these words, a gap-toothed boy begins an odyssey with his carrot-nosed friend, teaching him to swim and to fly a kite, visiting the amusement park and the zoo, playing at the beach, watching fireworks, and so on. Caralyn Buehner's rhyming text—only occasionally bumpy—sets the scene nicely, while Mark Buehner paints the scenery in gorgeously luminous oils and acrylics. With changing perspectives, places, and details that show off the illustrator's skill and imagination, every spread explodes with glee. Readers will explore the pictures again and again to take up the trademark challenge: find the hidden creatures in each scene. A celebration of friendship and sheer fun.—Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY
On the chilly heels of Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas comes this fantasy, courtesy of a boy who imagines an entire year spent playing with a magically unmelting snowman. The visual variety (settings include a zoo, the beach, and an amusement park) is effective in helping to camouflage the occasional uninspired rhyme.
Reviewed by Susan Weitz , Dec 01, 2010

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