________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIII Number 5. . . .October 7, 2016

cover

So Much Snow!

Robert Munsch. Illustrated by Michael Martchenko.
Toronto, ON: Scholastic Canada, 2016.
32 pp., pbk., $7.99.
ISBN 978-1-4431-4617-3.

Kindergarten-grade 2 / Ages 5-7.

Review by Andrea Boyd.

**** /4

   

excerpt:

So Jasmine dressed really warm. Right away, it started to snow very hard.

Jasmine sang:

Neat! Neat! Snowy feet!

Snowy feet can’t be beat.

Neat! Neat! Snowy feet!

Snowy feet can’t be beat.

Wintertime is fun!

 

The famous author-illustrator duo has done it again! Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko have teamed up to create another fabulous, laugh-out-loud funny children’s book.

internal art      It’s Pizza Day at school, and nothing is going to stop Jasmine from making it there—not even a blizzard! Her mother warned her about the storm heading their way, but Jasmine insisted on going anyways. She bundled up and went on her way.

      Immediately as she stepped outside, the snow began to fall very hard from the sky. But that didn’t faze Jasmine. With a humungous smile on her face, she made-up a wintertime song. As she carried on toward the school, she soon found herself in deep trouble—literally! The snow went up to her knees, then her bum, next her nose, and, before she knew it, she was completely buried! Nevertheless, she continued to sing her wintertime songs, changing the lyrics each time to depict her situation and feelings.

      Thankfully, the school caretaker came stomping through the snow to her rescue. He dragged Jasmine’s frozen solid body to the school building where the vice principal and secretary attempted to warm her up with blankets and hot chocolate. Nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t until the caretaker tickled Jasmine that... CRACK!... the ice surrounding her body finally shattered as she burst out in laughter!

      Now that Jasmine had thawed out, she headed down the empty halls of the school toward her classroom. As she began to make her way over, she stopped by the principal’s office. With a surprised look on his face, the principal informed Jasmine that it was a snow day and everyone was to go home. Jasmine replied, “Wait a minute! It’s Pizza Day!” And the next thing you know, Jasmine, along with the few school workers who made it that day, went for a ride on the principal’s snowmobile to enjoy a pizza lunch.

internal art      So Much Snow! could be used as a tool to teach children several elements of poetry, including: rhyme scheme, repetition, and rhythm. Each time the snow gets deeper, Jasmine sings new lyrics to her song, but the structure of the song remains consistent. The author also italicized the song lyrics, and each short song is organized into a stanza with five lines. Because the book is intended for a young audience, full-page illustrations are the focus of each page. The talented illustrator, Michael Martchenko, created artwork for the story using watercolour paint on Crescent illustration board. This superior quality art board allowed for finer details and outlines to later be added using a different medium. These additions enhanced each character and background image throughout the story by making them appear more "real". Readers may simply view the images on each page to understand the story. Each illustration accurately portrays all that is written in text. For example, the young girl has music notes drawn above her head on each corresponding page with one of her songs. What begins as many multi-coloured music notes at the beginning of her journey to school turns into a small cluster of icy-cold blue music notes once she is buried in the snow and wishing that she was home in bed. However, the illustrations also tell more than what is directly written in the text. There is a Saint-Bernard dog that appears on the title page as well as throughout the book, but the character’s story remains a mystery as it was not mentioned once in the text.

      Munsch is the author of many bestselling books, and Martchenko has been the illustrator for more than ninety books. So Much Snow! was written for a young girl who had to walk to kindergarten in the snow.

Highly Recommended.

Andrea Boyd is an early years educator who recently graduated from the University of Manitoba. She currently teaches Grade 4 in Winnipeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
Hosted by the University of Manitoba.
 

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