Let it snow

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s it any wonder why in the dog days of August my thoughts turn to cooler weather. Here are some stories to cool you off and maybe gets kids excited about the seasons to come.


PIP AND POSY: THE SNOWY DAY by Axel Scheffler. Nosy Crow, 2013. Join series characters Pip and Posy as they work through an argument about their snow sculpture.

WHEN CHARLEY MET GRAMPA by Amy Hest with illustrations by Helen Oxenbury. Candlewick Press. Charley and Grampa both have to battle snow fall when Charley goes to the train station to meet Grampa.

BIG SNOW by Jonathan Bean. FSG, 2013. David is excited about the prospect of a BIG snow. Mom tries to distract him.

WHEN IT SNOWS by Richard Collingridge. Feiwel and Friends, 2013. Anything can happen when it snows, even magic.

OONE-DOG SLEIGH by Mary Casanova with illustrations by Ard Hoyt. FSG, 2013. Rhtmic rhming text and a sleigh pulled by a ariety of animals.

Storm's Brewing!

EYE OF THE STORM by Kate Messner (Walker, March 2012) provides readers a frightening glimpse into a future where, thanks to global warming, storms have grown exponentially. Hurricanes, monsoons, and tornadoes all have new scales for measuring their intensity because the old ones do not come close to providing the true nature of these super storms. Into this chilling scenario, Messner introduces three teens: Jaden, who has come to spend the summer with her father at an institute designed to foster the thinking of the best and brightest kids; Alex, the son of a farmer whose crops and existence are constantly threatened by the storms, and Risha, a teen from the neighborhood where Jaden's father lives: Placid Meadows. As Jaden begins to study, along with Alex, the data from past storms and equations that might address how to stop the storms in their tracks, she inadvertently discovers a dark secret of the StormSafe project, one that threatens the lives of many people including Jaden herself. <525>

Messner creates a suspenseful and utterly believable story with EYE OF THE STORM. Jaden, Alex, and Risha are all intelligent kids but they are, first and foremost, kids and not amateur detectives. They make errors in judgment; they fall in love; they feel betrayed by those they love, too. Readers will be turning the pages frenetically to ensure that all escape with their lives.