Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change

by Jan Thornhill, Josée Bisaillon (Illustrator)

Lily, a young snowshoe hare, is surprised to notice the leaves changing color in her forest home. She hears from a passing flock of birds that “Winter’s coming.” Lily doesn’t know who or what winter is, but it must be frightening. Why else would the birds be escaping south? And it must have an enormous appetite. Why else would the squirrel be hiding his food? And why would the caterpillar curl up and freeze as solid as an acorn? As Lily learns the ways in which her forest friends prepare for winter’s arrival, she becomes more and more worried about what she should be doing. Finally, the brown bear points out that Lily has been preparing without even knowing it: her fur is thickening and turning white to help her camouflage in the changing weather. This fascinating story introduces the ways in which different animals adapt to survive winter and is complemented by illustrations in a mix of collage, drawing, and digital montage.

Grade: 3
Fountas & Pinnel: N
Lexile Measure: AD 780L
Common Core State Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.3,3a,4,4a,5,5a,5b,5c,6
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.3.3,4,4a,4c
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2,2a,2b,2d,4,7,8,10

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Science, Nature, Childrens, Nonfiction, Environment

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2014

About the author

I was born in 1955 in Sudbury, but spent most of my childhood in southern Ontario where, encouraged by my artist mother and engineer/inventor father, I developed a life-long passion for both art and the natural world. I spent a lot of time exploring the fields, woods, ponds, and streams near where I lived, and was an avid collector of things I found. I brought home all kinds of treasures – skulls and fossils, bird feathers and empty nests, insects, snake skins, fallen leaves. Eventually I labeled everything and made a museum in the basement. I thought I’d get rich by charging a 5¢ entry fee…but my mum was the only one who paid!

After high school, I attended the Ontario College of Art where I had fun making experimental films and videos – not drawing and painting. For about ten years after that, I illustrated freelance for magazines and newspapers, and did odd jobs such as sewing thousands of beads and sequins on Dolly Parton’s dresses. Finally, in the late eighties, I switched to the much richer life of creating children’s books. From the beginning, the aim of these wildlife-based books has been to foster in young readers a love of art, nature and the environment.

I live in the Kawarthas in a house in the woods that my husband and I built. As well as making books, I grow organic vegetables, raise a few chickens each year, make bread from captured wild yeast, and wander around in the woods looking for wild mushrooms, slime molds, beetles and animal skulls. A lot of the things I find – skulls, snake skins, desiccated insects, a mummified bat & hummingbirds, etc. – have made their way into what I call my “museum-in-a-bag,” a collection of natural treasures I share with kids when I visit schools. I’m an obsessive observer of the world around me, so much so that I consider a day I haven’t learned something to be a day wasted.

Reviews

[Mymcbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review: Lily is barely 6 months old and has only notice green on the trees. So when the color of the leaves started to change it came as a surprised to her. She notice the animal where busy doing one thing or the other. Why are the birds getting ready to fly south, the squirrels drying mushroom, the turtles burying themselves in the mud at the bottom of the creek and many more.

They all told her that Winter is coming. To Lily, Winter sounds mysterious to her as she knew about danger but she hasn’t heard of Winter. Should she be running away from Winter? Then Lily met a bear who explained what Winter was all about.

This is a great book for lovers of animals. Learn about the animal and their environment Facts from the book. Read about how animals prepare for Winter. The illustrations by Josee Bisailon help to bring the story to life. I highly recommend this book for school libraries.





FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Owl Kids publishing in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion in any way.

[SquidneyReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good "not-quite-non-fiction" book for elementary school aged children with longer attention spans. Explores how different animals adapt to winter and what they do to prepare. One page spread does talk about mosquitoes dying in winter, and snowshoe hare, who has never experienced winter before, asks if Winter will kill her, too. A little shocking, but good if you're talking about nature and its cycles with a more mature audience.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This longer story about Winter is best suited for elementary school-aged students with longer attention spans. It is a clever way of introducing winter and the adaptations that many different creatures have to survive these chilly months. It is a bit like a mystery and provides opportunity to engage with the story, as well.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grades K-3. Great science read-aloud about how animals get ready for winter. Illustrations show hares change over time. Great to pair with book Bugs and Bugcicles.

More than just migration and hibernation. What animals that stay to to adjust and how life cycles end for others. A must-have.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming and educational story about how a variety of different forest animals prepare for the winter season. It's a wordy book, so kids who have more patience for stories (or a strong interest in the subject matter) are probably the ideal audience.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated, straightforward and accessible introduction to the seasons with an adorable hare at the center of the story.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good choice for teaching about the seasons but you will need good listeners or slightly older kids for this one, it's a bit longer than most.

[Cemeread · Rating 4 out of 5]

A longer story, but good information on animal behavior for winter.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty cute story to teach seasonal changes. This is a good read for kindergarten and first graders. The page texts are pretty long, but the illustration is inviting.

[Arminzerella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A snowshoe hare (in its first year) keeps hearing other animals talking about the coming of Winter and imagines that it is a huge and terrifying thing (all the other animals are fleeing, hiding, and otherwise making preparations). The hare isn't sure what to expect or how to prepare, but eventually meets a bear that gives it some reassuring information. As the story progresses, the hare's coat gradually changes from brown to snow white. Readers will gain an understanding of how various animals prepare for the winter season. This joins the ranks of picture books about confused animals who have lost touch with their instincts and/or haven't had any instruction from their mothers/fathers about how to survive in the world and what to expect. Who am I? What do I do?

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The imagery in this book provides information about the changing seasons and cycles of nature. Lily is a young snowshoe hare who begins to notice that leaves on trees have started changing color and the birds are all flying South because “winter is coming.” Lily is scared because she’s never experienced a winter and fears she will not be prepared. Brown Bear assures Lily that she will be fine because, even though she doesn’t know it, she has been slowly preparing the whole time. Her coat is thick and white and ready for winter. This is a cute story that teaches students about the changing seasons and what animals do to prepare.

[Jeanine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well done! A bit wordy and long for the younger ones, but because it follows the standard preparing for winter story formula, the older ones can really focus on the parts about what different animals are doing to prepare for the coming winter. The illustrations were charming at first but then mindbending when you realize with the rabbit that her fur has been changing all along!

Some very good nature content woven into the story and a little blurb with a few extra details about the different methods is included at the end.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snowshoe rabbit learns about winter from his friends. He wonders if it will be able to fly like the grackle or if it has prickly hairs like the caterpillar. Will winter EAT him? Doesn't realize he is turning white the whole time. Has a lot of back matter on the different animals and how they adapt to deal with winter.

[Carrie Gelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elements of a nonfiction title - lots of extra information about various animals preparing for winter in the back. A longer read aloud.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about seasons and animal adaptations during the different seasons!!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for older kids. Like 2nd grade. Very clever

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Jan for enjoyable book

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to share w a child, filled w facts about the coming of winter and how various woodland creatures prepare differently.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very wordy for a picture book

[Kendra Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about how different animals prepare for winter. It has big rich vocabulary that introduces kids to new words!

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The copy of this title that I had access to was categorized as a picture book, however the text is much too lengthy for a story time. Plus there are two pages of short paragraphs about animal and environmental facts and also how animals prepare for winter.
Do pursue the illustrations as they are very appealing
and although the publishing does not tell us how they were rendered, collage seems to be the method. They are lovely.

[Eva Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, was THIS ever a great one! I figured I'd better read it NOW since winter is coming. You don't want to read about winter COMING when it's already HERE. Then it's too late!
It's about this rabbit named Lily who's a snowshoe hare, and everybody in the forest is telling her that winter's coming, but she has NO IDEA what they're talking about, and then she's kind of freaking out about it, but then guess what? It starts SNOWING. And that's when this BEAR tells her that winter isn't COMING. It's already HERE.
And that's when she notices her FUR is white. You know, they do that, some animals, because that way hawks and foxes can't find them in the snow and EAT them.
I liked the pictures in this one. They looked kind of like paintings and kind of like pictures that the guy glued onto the pages. So that was creative.
This one had a lot of words but that was OK. Mama read it to me so that wasn't a problem. It wasn't hard. It was just LONG. But those are the best ones for someone to read TO you.
So I loved this one!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lily, a young snowshoe hare, has never experienced winter, and finds all the other animals' preparations for it strange. Some head south while others store food, and still others like the mosquito prepare to die since winter is not hospitable for them. Readers will enjoy Lily's naïve questions about winter and how she becomes convinced that it's something scary. Observant readers will note how her fur changes colors gradually over the course of the book's pages. The illustrations are quite handsome and show various animals, including a snapping turtle, and a gray tree frog in their natural habitat. An afterword with brief text offers additional information about each of the animals featured in the book.

[Bethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite a non fiction book on animals in winter as the young rabbit main character asks her neighbors what winter is. Young readers will notice the rabbit's hair changing over time. Back matter includes info on each species mentioned and other winter preparations.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long but gorgeous

[Jodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A snowshoe hare tries to figure out what winter is as she watches other animals make preparations. A little long, but lovely illustrations.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story. Art was nice--fun reveal at end. Longer text-for older elementary kids. Notes in back for 3rd grade and up.

[Arlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because my Grandaughter's name is Winter. What I learned was how many animals prepare for the coming of Winter, the season. Very interesting.