Song for the Snow

In this quietly charming picture book, Jon-Erik Lappano’s heartfelt prose is combined skillfully with Byron Eggenschwiler’s tranquil illustrations to tell the story of Freya, a young girl who dreams of the return of snow at the beginning of every winter season and all the joy it brings. However, Freya’s town has been snow-free for several winters with warmer and warmer winters arriving each year to Freya’s disappointment. As Freya goes about her daily life with her parents, enjoying breakfast and a farmer's market, she imagines the snow around her in everything she sees, hears and feels. At the market, a woman gives Freya a snow-globe that, when wound, plays a song that is said to call the snow home to their village. Freya treasures the globe and plays the song over and over. Freya’s mother reveals that her grandmother once sang the same song when she was a child, and the snow was “so deep it felt like we’d disappear beneath it.”

Every morning, Freya takes the snow globe outside, shakes it, winds it and sings along with it, but the snow does not appear. Further troubling news is heard on the radio, with weather commentators suggesting that Freya’s town will be snow free that winter and possibly for every winter after. Crestfallen, but still enamored with the song of the snow, Freya brings the snow globe into school, sharing its song with her classmates until all her classmates begin singing and humming the song at home, passing it on to their parents who remember the tune. Eventually, everyone in the town is shown reveling in the song that fills “their homes and hearts”. It is on this evening that the wind changes, and, when Freya goes out in the morning, frost crunches under her feet, her breath is visible, and, at last, “a single, lonely snowflake drift[s] into town”. The snowflake is followed by another and another until the sky is full of snow and its chilly embrace blankets the entire town.

Both the writing and images of Song for the Snow reflect both creators’ appreciation and reverence for the joys of nature while depicting naturalistic settings and animals as well as a beautifully rendered view of the northern lights in one double page spread. People are also lovingly depicted in a soothing palette of cool colours, with Eggenschwiler’s images showing the magical in the mundane. Lappano’s prose excels at capturing the sensuousness of childhood by emphasizing the sights, sounds and feelings of snow that make up Freya’s favourite memories and which give readers a point of reference, grounding the tale in reality. While hinting at the consequences of global warming (the town’s increasingly warm winters), the story does not force its message and only subtly guides child readers to the conclusion that only by coming together as a community and respecting the natural world will we weather the changes occurring on our planet.

Song for the Snow may be a little too wordy for younger children, but, for those able to commit their attention to it, the book functions as a perfectly delightful and calming bedtime story, one which emphasizes the wonders of nature as well as the communal ability of a supportive small town.