Grandmother Winter lives all alone with her snow-white flock of geese. All through the spring, summer, and fall, Grandmother Winter tends her geese and gathers their feathers. Why? To bring snowfall as soft as feathers and bright as a winter moon. To the woodland and all of its creatures, the arrival of winter is a gift.
August 30, 1999
Root (Aunt Nancy and Cousin Lazybones), no stranger to folktales, takes her inspiration for the title character from a German fairy tale figure, Mother Holle. Beginning in the spring, this wisp of a tale traces the heroine and her "snow-white flock" of geese through the four seasons. The prose gently foreshadows the closing spreads; in summer, for instance, Grandmother Winter gathers the goose feathers, "soft as snowflakes,/ bright as a winter moon." First-time illustrator Krommes supplies the meat of the volume with visual hints at what's to come. In an autumnal spread, her scratchboard illustration depicts the protagonist embroidering a quilt of snowflake designs--no two alike--while russet and golden leaves tumble in through the window. As the woman shakes out her downy masterpiece, the flakes begin to fall, sending nature's creatures scurrying for cover. Krommes portrays a painted turtle burying itself in the muddy floor of a pond and bull snakes snugly coiled beneath the ground, before closing with scenes of children and Grandmother Winter herself tucked into their beds. A cozy mood-setter that will help children to welcome the winter weather. Ages 4-8.
November 22, 2004
Based on a German fairy tale figure, Mother Holle, this tale traces the heroine and her geese through the four seasons. PW
called it "a cozy mood-setter that will help children welcome the winter weather." Ages 4-8.