Snow

Snow
P.D. Eastman ~ Roy McKie ~ Random House, 1962

Throughout our conversation, Roy kept returning to this one as his personal favorite (more on that later), and I imagine there are mountains of children around the world who are likeminded. Still in print after almost 50 years. Written by the incomparable P.D. Eastman of Go Dog Go fame (and of course, Sam and the Firefly and Are You My Mother?), here you have no scientific answers on the origins of the white stuff. No morality fables to be learned. No lessons taught.

Quite simply we are taken on a journey through the imagination and wonder of two children (and their pup) as they explore a winter afternoon.

What is snow?
We do not know.
But snow is lots of fun,
We know.

Roy's black outlines here are so unaffected, yet convey worlds of emotion. The delicate, one-stroke smiles being all the explanation needed. What makes this book so special is that it is pure innocence, the one truth that can deem a children's book timeless. If you break childhood down to its basic, fundamental core and can illustrate it and share it with others, to me, there's no more noble cause.

Unlike childhood, a story like this is forever... as if we could all pack the exuberance of a snow fight and the wonder of a snowman into a freezer and save it for a sunny day.

This book is joy. Absolute perfection.

Also by:
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
The Nose Book
Summer
Melisande
I Can Write a Book
Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles
The Hair Book