We are in the midst of a blizzard so it made sense to pull out all our winter books as we are trapped inside for two days. I’m not a fan of winter-themed books. You know, the books that are tagged as winter and are usually boring with a lot of hibernation going on.
Rhododendron Thermometer
I use our Rhododendrons outside to gauge the weather. The tighter the leaves are curled up, the colder it is. This is a weather indicator my kids use. The leaves below mean coats, but not necessarily zipped up, hats and mittens optional … or at least this is how my kids dress for 30 to 40-degree Fahrenheit weather.
This is our Rhododendron in about 20 degrees Fahrenheit weather.
Here is about 40 degrees. Both the plant and my kids seem to think this is warm.
Thankfully, we haven’t had much sub-zero or single-digit weather lately. When it’s that cold, the Rhododendron’s leaves are curled up tight.
My husband sent me these tracks he found in our yard. What do you think? Rabbit tracks? We’re not sure …
I’d rather read a book that just happens to include winter but has a way of inveigling its way into my mind and heart. Books you remember long past when winter is over. These books do that for me. I remember some from my own childhood. Others have special associations. What are your favorite winter books? Please share!
Other winter activities for kids:
Keeping Kids Active in Winter, Part 2
21 Wonderful Winter Children’s Books
1. Best Winter Inner City Picture Book
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Hands down, this is our favorite winter picture book. Never has the inner city seemed more appealing. Since two of my kids spent a few years in the city, this is especially fun for us to see Brownstones and snow piled high. Life was like this during the big storm when we lived in the South End of Boston. [picture book, ages 1 and up]
2. Best Rhyming Winter Picture Book
Snow by P. D. Eastman, illustrated by Roy McKie
As my kids get older, sledding is one of the great pleasures of winter. These days we live near a perfect sledding hill. Snow not only conveys the joys of winter for kids but does it in exuberant rhyme! [picture book, ages 2 and up]
3. Best Winter Suburban Picture Book
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
We love Burton’s picture books, particularly Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, but even more so now that I’ve discovered we lived in the same town! Check out her biography. I can just imagine Katy or other bulldozers like Katy shoveling our suburb out, much as Katy did for Virginia nearly a hundred years ago in Newton Centre too! [picture book, ages 2 and up]
4. Best Explore Winter Picture Book
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Yolen’s picture book reads like poetry, describing a magical time looking for owls at night as a father/daughter outing. May all fathers be inspired to do special father/daughter dates like this one! [picture book, ages 2 and up]
5. Best Snowman Picture Book
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
At our first Boston Pops Holiday Concert for Kids, a special guest — a soprano — read The Snowman aloud while images of each page were projected onto a huge screen. She sang too, of course. [picture book, ages 1 and up]
6. Best Winter Novel in Verse
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
Rose’s debut novel in verse is stunning. May is a young girl who gets hired out to distant neighbors. She is forced to survive a snowstorm alone in a tiny sod house with hungry wolves nearby. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder but more honest and raw. In verse too! [middle grade novel in verse, ages 9 and up]
7. Best Old Fashioned Middle Grade Book
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My girls refuse to read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books which kills me. I loved them as a child. The Long Winter seemed so foreign to me as a child growing up in Southern California, both the concept of winter and the bygone era of homesteading in the 1880s. Imagine seven months of blizzards! We can barely make it through two days! [middle grade, ages 8 and up]
8. Best Unforgettable Biographical Middle Grade Book
The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Rudomin Hautzig
A haunting true story of Hautzig’s family who was forced into exile in Siberia during WWII for being Jewish. They were the lucky ones, in retrospect, though life wasn’t easy. On every biting cold day, as I zip up my winter coat, I remember the scene in The Endless Steppe where Ester is packing up to leave and decides to stuff in her winter coat even though her suitcase is stuffed full. Imagine life in Siberia without it. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]
9. Best Animal Winter Children’s Book Turned Into a Movie
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
Some old-fashioned chapter books have, thankfully, managed to stay in my kids’ good graces. This is one of them. If you’ve seen the movie, know that it deviated tremendously from the book and should be considered a crime. Mr. Popper’s Penguins was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1939 and won the 1940 Young Reader’s Choice Award. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]
Wonderful Winter Books From Readers
Thank you so much to readers who offer up their very favorite winter books for kids!
Jen Fischer recommends Snow Sounds and Trouble with Trolls.
MaryAnne of Mama Smiles loves Red Sled. (Wouldn’t you know it? There are two Red Sled books. One is by Lita Judge, the other is by Patricia Thomas. I am guessing it’s the one by Patricia Thomas).
Susan Marx of Read Aloud Guide suggests Lois Elhert’s Snowballs. She says, “Engaging text and illustrations makes a snow family come alive in Lois Ehlert’s “Snowballs”. Young children learn how to make a snow family using many different objects. This book is sure to foster children’s creativity as well as encourage them to bundle up and spend fun time outside during the winter. See “Help Me Get Ready To Read” for other wintry books.www.readaloudguide.com Happy Reading Aloud!”
@granolasusan on Twitter recommends Cynthia Rylant’s Snow.
Catherine of Story Snug loves Bear Snores On and One Snowy Night.
Bernadette from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas loves Snow by P. D. Eastman.
Erica of What Do We Do All Day recommends chapter books Icefall and Breadcrumbs.
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Great list! Have you read “Red Sled”? That’s another favorite – perfect for little kids!
Hi MaryAnne,
I’ll add it to the list! Thank you!
Wow you have a lot of snow !!! So many of these are our favorites, especially the Snowman and Owl Moon. I haven’t heard of Endless Steppe and look forward to reading it. Hope you thaw out soon. 🙂 I’ll be tweeting and google plussing this. Great List !! thanks Mia.
Hi Valarie,
23 inches in just one dump! Ugh! A lot of shoveling! Thanks for your social media support! I’ll be looking forward to reading what you think of The Endless Steppe!
Thankyou for this great list, we also like The Snowy Day ( a friend just lent it to us, I didn’t know it before) and The Snowman.
We love One Snowy Night http://storysnug.com/2013/01/one-snowy-night/ and also Bear Snores On – both have lots of sleepy animals in 🙂
Hi Catherine,
Thanks for your book recommendations! I added them to the list! Sleepy animals are so perfect for a winter book for kids!
That is a lot of snow, but the rhododendrum thermometer is something new to me, but good o know. And you have included some of my favorite books here. I love it.
Thanks so much Alex! There are so many great winter books for kids out there and so little time to read!
This is a fabulous list!
Thank you!
Thank you so much Lisa!!!
Great list! I just purchased Owl Moon for my husband to read to our little girl. She’s only 6 months, but I know lots of owl walks are in our future!
Hi Erika,
Your daughter is so lucky! Owl Moon and owl walks are a magical combination that I’m sure your daughter will treasure! We don’t have woods around here so my kids have never done an Owl Night moon walk yet …
To be honest I don’t know any English book for/about winter…The list you have provided sounds really good though so maybe next year I will read them with the little ones. Now I am sick and tired of winter and I want it to go away!!! 🙁
Hi Alexandra,
My husband would totally agree with you. He hates winter and it depresses him to no end! He’s already making plans to retire somewhere warm and counting down the years until we empty nest which is still QUITE some time away!
Great collection of books Mia, I see some favorites and also some new ones to read to my kids.
We love Snow Sounds and Trouble with Trolls.
Engaging text and illustrations makes a snow family come alive in Lois Ehlert’s “Snowballs”. Young children learn how to make a snow family using many different objects. This book is sure to foster children’s creativity as well as encourage them to bundle up and spend fun time outside during the winter. See “Help Me Get Ready To Read” for other wintry books.www.readaloudguide.com Happy Reading Aloud!
I’d just really rather read about winter and look at the beautiful pictures than live in this coldness. Okay, I’m just saying that because today was miserable here in Chicago. This is a fun list, though, and I especially enjoyed looking up the word inveigling.
Hi Jeanette,
We are a little tired of winter here too in Boston. Especially of snow removal!!! But if we have to live through winter, I’d rather be curled up inside snuggling and reading a book so I’m hoping my kids will too! They actually love winter and snow. Well, make that 2 out of 3. My son hates the cold. I hope your winter takes a turn for the better! Do you think we are half way through yet??! I heard we are getting more snow at the end of the week. No more snow days though please! We are already ending school during the last week of June!!!
Great list, something for everyone and I am thrilled to see “The Long Winter” and “The Endless Steppe” made the cut. If I remember correctly you had a lot of suggestions to include “The Long Winter” and I suggested “The Endless Steppe” although maybe others did as well. Keep brave and warm as you face the rest of Winter – I am writing from Sunny Sydney!
Hi Emma,
Was that you who suggested The Endless Steppe in our Google + KidLit communities? I wanted to thank you! I remember reading The Long Winter as a kid and everyone talked about Ingalls back then (The Harry Potter of its generation for girls) but I always felt like NO ONE read The Endless Steppe because we never discussed it and yet it really stuck with me. I have more vivid memories of The Endless Steppe (their potato party!) than I do of The Long Winter. So thank you! I felt like I was the only one who really loved The Endless Steppe back then! It was such a faded memory too, it felt almost like perhaps I had dreamt it. It’s nice to find kindred spirits who love the same books!!
I love digging out the classics and the forgotten books from years ago and introducing them to children and adults alike. I was lucky enough to have a very wide range of books to choose from when I was little and I really enjoy sharing that experience with others. I look forward to the next list.
Hi Emma,
Thanks so much! It’s so exciting for me when my kids love the same books I read as a child! It doesn’t always happen so it makes me especially happy that happens!
Great list–I love the individual themes within winter! I saw some old favorites, but also some that I’m not familiar with. I’m looking forward to checking the new ones out!
Thanks so much Katrina! I am really enjoying your blog, by the way!
Great list! I am forgetting it is winter down here in sunny Florida! I love winter books! A chapter book in verse! I think I must check that out!!!
Interesting about the Rhododendron leaves. I think I have noticed that the curl up in the cold!
Hi Ann,
May B. is great! You’ll love it! I wish I took a photo of the Rhododendron in sub zero or single digit weather. Usually I am quite miserable and not in the mood to remove my gloves to get the shot but I shall do it the next chance I get to put that photo alongside. The leaves are so curled up they look like they are protesting the cold too! And the 40 degree leaves look practically like the 80+ degree leaves! Ready to party!
For middle grade I also like Icefall and Breadcrumbs. Thanks for sharing at The Children’s Bookshelf. P.S. Your blog load speed is soooo much better!
Thanks so much Mom and Kiddo, on all accounts! I hired Vanita of AfterBedTimeBlog.com to help me load speed. She said I had too many old backups on my server that were slowing it down, plus other stuff that I don’t really understand. She fixed it in a day. I’ll add your book recs too! Thanks!
Awesome list. We love Owl Moon. I like how you have so many Vintage books on your list.
Hi Bethany,
Thanks so much! Yeah, I do love the back list … the books that stick out in my mind from when my kids were little (my oldest is 13 now) and those I loved as a child. I’m trying to read more newly published books this year though but I am seriously slow.
What a great book list! I am going to pin this to remember! I have a Saturday linky party that I would love to have you participate in if you have the chance.
http://teachbesideme.com
Thanks!
Thanks KAryn,
I’d love to join your Linky party! Swinging by right now! Thanks for stopping by my blog!!
This is a great round-up of winter books! Thank you for sharing this with us. We wanted to let you know we will be featuring your post tomorrow on Share It Saturday at sugaraunts.com. We will also be sharing with our Facebook followers. If you would like to stop by, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sugar-Aunts/406711342711382?ref=hl
We always love to see your ideas on Share It Saturday!
Colleen at http://www.sugaraunts.com
Thank you so much Sugar Aunts. I will share your post through my social media as well!! Thank you! Thank you! I really appreciate it!