This evocative picture book, dedicated to the people of Newtown, Conn., and the village of Sandy Hook, may be appreciated as a loving homage to the seasons of childhood as well as a way to cope with fear and loss.
Patricia MacLachlan (What I Knew First) and Steven Kellogg (Clorinda) move fluidly through an array of emotions without ever seeming maudlin. "After the flowers are gone/ Snowflakes fall./ Flake/ After flake/ After flake/ Each one a pattern/ All its own--/ No two the same--/ All beautiful." These poetic opening lines accompany an image of children catching snow on tongues and mittens. White crystals on a swirl of blue could be ice or air, populated by earthbound children or spirits in the sky.
Laughing children and loyal dogs dominate the scenes. One shows them rolling downhill toward an idyllic valley. Kellogg zeroes in on a church, a library, a flagpole, then one boy's bedroom. MacLachlan and Kellogg suggest that children must experience their feelings in their own way ("Wailing winds may blow/ And frantic, icy snowflakes/ scratch the window glass"), yet the boy has the company of his Teddy bear, pup and kitten. When the sun rises, they make snow angels. Snow melts into the rushing waters of spring, and "when the flowers bloom/ The children remember the snowflakes/ .../ No two the same--/ All beautiful."
Words and pictures bring the book full circle, as Kellogg depicts 20 snow angels taking flight, the impressions of children becoming spirits in the sky. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness