Snow, Snow: Winter Poems for Children

by Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen's wintry, shivery poems are inspired by the stunning photographs of Jason Stemple, who has captured the imagesof snow in all its breathtaking beauty. After children enjoy these poems and pictures, they will look at snow in a different way --with their imaginations as well as your eyes.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, Nature

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 1998

About the author

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good poems and nice enough photography.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book because I like poetry. It may be a short book but it is one of my favorite poetry books. It is about winter time and it's snowing and it shows all of the animals playing in snow and how pretty it is to be in the snow. I learned that everbody has different opinions about snow. Some people like it and some people don't like it as much as the other person.

I would recommend this book to everybody that loves poetry. You will really like this book and maybe give it the same stars as I did. If you read this book you won't regret it. It teaches you what animals do when it snows, shows about bears, tigers, ect.

Jane Yolen is a really good writer in my opinion. She writes all kinds of books about animals all in poetry form. She is very talented if you ask me I hope she keeps writing poetry and I will keep reading them. So read this book.It's has some really amazing and good poetry in it!!!!!!!

[Tyler Waller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a poem book that talks about winter and how snow affects different parts of nature and the snowy environments. Obviously Jane Yolen does this in a unique way by telling readers about snow and winter in the style of poetry. The poems range from about 10 words to 45 words, so there is a variety about how much information is in each poem. Each poem is accompanied by a beautiful photo of the landscape in which the poem is about. Like Bug off! Creepy, Crawly Poems by Jane Yolen, there are 13 poems in the book and each one takes on a different aspect of winter including topics like: snow mobiles, snow on trees, and rivers in the winter. With such a variety of topics, readers are sure to learn new information and become more familiar with the characteristics of winter and how it affects the world around us.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little poems written to go with gorgeous winter photographs of snow.

[Susan Treat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good poem book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

AR 4.0

[Marissa Scott]

For this week's books selection, I decided to go on a strictly poetry route. Two of the seven that I chose where Falling Up and Where the Side Walk Ends by Shel Silverstein which were two of my favorite books growing up and were some of the reason why I fell in love with poetry at such young age. I have always loved poetry because I liked how it flowed and was actually fun to read since I didn't like reading that much when I was young. But poetry is hard to love when going through schools with very small poetry units that just drill the same five poems into you every year, so as a teacher, I want to encourage my students to love it like I used to and not grow up hating it like many students do now. For the review this week, I decided to do a book with a collections of poems by Jane Yolen called Snow, Snow. I chose to review this book because I have never read the poems in it before and I feel as if I could use this collection very easily in my future classroom. This book would be perfect to use for a poetry unit in my class because the poems are short and sweet and they are also not all written in the basic forms of poetry that gets hammered into young kids brains like haikus. I would definitely use it as well if this unit happened to be in the winter time because it would be a good example to my students about how poetry can be about anything at all like snowboarding, snow on a tree, or even the snow on a grate in the road. From what I remember about my poetry units in elementary school, all we did was read the same basic poetry over and over again and didn't really get the choice to go pick our own topic to try and write a poem about it, so in my class, I want to bring in poems like in this book and show the kids that they are able to write poetry about anything they want to. I don't want my kids to feel like they are constrained or feel like they shouldn't even attempt poetry because their poems don't necessarily sound like the ones that are read in class. I want my kids to feel like poetry is a freeing form of writing with no judgement about how its done or what it is about. I want my kids to love poetry as much as I did back then because of what I am teaching them and what they are reading in my room. I hope by using books such as this one by Jane Yolen, kids will have fun with poetry and enjoy doing it versus cringing when they hear that they have to read and write a poem. In my classroom I want to get a variety of different types of poem books so my kids are very well aware that there is more poems and poets out there than they are just taught in a quick poetry unit. For next week I will probably search for graphic novels because I haven't ever really seen a ton of them and I want to expose myself more to them since we have the opportunity to in this class.

[Amie Floersheim]

• Summarize the book
This is a book of poems that all address the main idea of winter. Some of them are quite short while others are a little longer with more complex structure. All the poems are written by Jane Yolen. The poems use a variety of literary techniques such as figurative language and sensory details to help the reader picture the text. There are also beautiful photographs that help the reader visualize what the author is conveying. My favorite poem in the book is very short and simply says

Without warning,
the sky falls down,
covering the trees
with clouds.

• Identify the characteristics from the text that support the specific genre (What makes it traditional literature? What makes it historical fiction?)
This is a book of poems because they are short pieces of text that may rhyme or have a specific rhythm. Sometimes the lines are not written in complete sentences with the proper grammar of typical text.

• Identify specific literary or educational concepts that could be integrated into the classroom. (eg. This book is a good text to use when teaching how to make inferences, or This books deals with bullying and would be useful when beginning a discussion about bullying in the classroom.)
I would use this during the winter and have the students write out one of the poems and have them draw what they think they see. They could also use these poems as examples of how to write their own poems.

• Provide any other suggestions that would be useful regarding literary content, reading level, and other ways in which the book might be integrated.
All the poems in this book are different even though they all are about winter so it could be interesting to have students compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the poems and the authors varying opinions about winter.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the poem "Snow on the Trees" on page 15. It was nice because there were several similes like "as white as milk, as white as wool, as chalk, as cream, as white as ghosts." The beginning and last stanza are similar in that they start with "Somebody painted the trees last night...white on white." This ties the poem nicely together. It is mysterious because it says "somebody." The photographs are beautiful. I just didn't enjoy this type of poetry as much as humorous and silly ones like those by Shel Silverstein.

[Bridget R. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you might have guessed from the title, this collection of poetry is all about snow and winter. Yolen's poems are paired with breathtaking photographs of wintry landscapes.

What I thought: In this collection I most enjoyed Yolen's use of imagery. In "Snow on the Trees," she uses painting imagery and numerous similes. In "River in Winter," the snow is fur on the water. A delightful collection!

[Jessica]

The photographs that Jason Stemple has taken for this book are amazing. They really bring the poems to life. When reading poems to children, illustrations can be a tool to help the children get an idea what all of the descriptive words can be about. The combination of Yolen's poems and Stemple's photographs work together to help children to enjoy poetry or to get a taste of what poetry can be like. Great book for elementary aged children.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Yolen is prolific in the world of children's publishing. I enjoyed her book of poems. The accompanying photography is lovely and complements her work. I am re-reading this book to get inspiration.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photography, and a fun variety of short poems. Her introduction rings true: "This is a book fr snow lovers and for those who might love snow if only it weren't so cold and wet and sometimes inconvenient."

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally love these poems! Lovely photographs of snowy landscapes are illustrated with short, descriptive, fun to read poems. I learned a new word from this book! I like that children can learn new vocabulary and read lovely poems.

[Mindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice poems illustrated with photographs. A little hit or miss, but an okay picture book.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of snow poems is okay, though not all of the poems are my favorite. Then again, I don't think that it's intended to be that way. I like the book though.

[Mommywest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Word-picture poems are accompanied by beautiful winter landscape photos. Nicely done.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite poem was "Snow on Trees". Good for making inferences and understanding figurative language.

[Turrean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, clever verses and beautiful winter photography. Once or twice I thought the vocabulary was too sophisticated for the intended audience, but mostly spot on.