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Halpern, Julie Toby and the Snowflakes; illus. by Matthew Cordell.
Houghton, 2004 32p
ISBN 0-618-42004-5 $15.00
4-7 yrs
Even for adults, who quickly tire of shoveling pounds of snowy wonder from
the sidewalk, snow can bring a certain enchantment to the world, and for children,
its powers are magical. One of the reasons for that magic is its ability to
suddenly transform familiar landscapes (as explored in Perkins' Snow Music,
BCCB 12/03); another is its evanescence, its tendency to disappear sometimes
even more quickly than it came.
For Toby, snow isn't the only thing that can disappear quickly: yesterday his
best friend moved away, leaving only "his baseball glove that smells like
Parmesan cheese" and a very lonely Toby, who's desperate enough, only a
day later, to peer into the mailbox in the hope of a letter from his distant
pal. Suddenly, companionship unexpectedly arrives out of the blue (or, more
likely, out of the gray): when Toby greets a falling snowflake, it returns his
salutation, inviting him to come and play, and as others fall, they join him
in snow angels and general good fellowship ("Some tell jokes. Others talk
about movies they have seen. One snowflake wishes for a warm piece of pecan
pie"). After forming his new friends into one very fine snowman, a tired
and happy Toby returns inside, but the next day's sun sends the snow where all
good snowflakes must go. The snowflakes explain the rightness of their departure
("We snow, we disappear, we come back again. It is the nature of the snowflake"),
and the arrival on the scene of a friendly new boy (whose baseball glove "smells
like cheddar cheese") suggests that friendship too has its times of coming
and going.
This tender exploration of the classic lost-friend story not only breathes new
life into a well-worn message but also manages to make its metaphor into a lively
literal experience. Halpern's text is quietly plainspoken, with its short sentences
and present-tense narration, but it's also evocative at a kid's-eye level ("Piles
of snow fluff around Toby's boots"), in touch with important youthful matters
such as baseball and boyish camaraderie. Wisely eschewing sentimentality about
Toby's flaky friends, it instead gains its charm from a quiet accumulation of
homely realism dusted with a flurry of fantasy; Toby's sweetly matter-of-fact
and unsurprised response to his meteorologically motivated mates is logical
as a response to new friends, whether they're snowflakes or not.
Cordell's line-and-watercolor illustrations have a similar groundedness: Toby's
staunch little figure (his pointy red hat subtly recalling Peter's headgear
in Keats' The Snowy Day, a small homage to a wintry book with sensibilities
similar to this one) appears amid an obviously chilly winter wonderland, wherein
winter's lean light subdues the palette into whites touched with pale greens
and grays, and even Toby's red coat is muted into shadow. Slightly wavery yet
determined lines echo the protagonist's mood and drive the visual drama (the
double-page spread of Toby's forlorn face peering into the empty mailbox is
both comic and touching), while the snowflakes' characterization is prudently
left to the text, with only shadowy letters floating across Toby's view to convey
their message (or his imagining thereof). Generous white space surrounds the
vignettes and larger vistas, lending the visual narrative that same crystalline
stillness of a neighborhood newly blanketed, underscoring the snowy motif and
subtly highlighting Toby's own isolation.
The book's quiet wonderment and portrayal of a solitary (well, humanly solitary)
exploration of winter's joys will certainly make this a cold-weather favorite.
Don't just relegate it to the seasonal shelf, however, since young listeners
will also respond year-round to its sensitive message about friendship's cycles
and will relish an out-of-season evocation of the snow's wonders.
Deborah Stevenson, Editor
Cover illustration by Matthew Cordell from Toby and the Snowflakes ©2004.
Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.
This page was last updated on December 1, 2004.