As someone who lives in a cold and dreary climate, I dread winter. It’s a harsh and gloomy season that stretches on for way too long, traps you inside, dries out your skin, and leaves you cold and shivering. But not everything about winter is bad. And in Karen A. Wyle’s picture book, When It’s Winter, she helps to point out the best parts of the season and has made even this winter-hater realize that it’s not so bad. Below is my review of When It’s Winter along with an interview with Wyle about her book.
When It’s Winter plot summary
When it’s Winter is an ode to quiet yet playful winter activities. From how the cold air feels on your skin to what snowflakes taste like and everything in between, all of the senses are utilized to show the different things you can do both inside and out in the winter.
The young girl who sports every page of the story plays outside with her dog, drinks hot chocolate in a chair, and goes to bed and dreams about spring. But in the meantime, she still takes advantage of the playtime opportunities that only exist in the winter.
A gentle bedtime story
This charming picture book delivers on its topic, forming a poetry-like rhythm that the reader can get lost in while going through each page. The story is short and to the point, but it has a gentle, calming quality that helps you to get lost in this wintery world. And the fact that it ends at nighttime makes it the perfect bedtime story for long winter nights.
The illustrations
The illustrations by Barbara Dessi make use of its full-page space while adding enough detail and color to brighten up the simplified space of a snowy landscape. The story takes place in a rural setting with characters ice skating on ponds, traipsing through the woods, and following animal tracks in the snow. The illustrations help to sell this somewhat isolated and winterized setting. It also provides room for the book’s activities to take place.
The main character, a little girl, shows a variety of facial expressions, from silly to content. She also has a little dog who plays along and is present in every scene, whether she is knighting it with a long icicle or snuggling up together on a blanket inside. I see young readers following along with the dog’s actions as intently as the little girl’s.
An easy reader
When it’s Winter is also perfect for new readers. Each page contains just a few words, and each page begins with “When it’s winter…” creating a nice jumping off point to keep their momentum going and their focus on what comes next.
It’s also a story that non-readers can memorize easily, eventually knowing what each page says without relying on the text. Its rhythmic nature will help with this memorization process, making it a simple and easy story that can be read over and over again.
My recommendation
This is my second book by Karen A. Wyle that I have read and reviewed. The first was You Can’t Kiss a Bubble, which was equally as gentle and charming. Wyle’s stories are not as much message-based as they are experienced-based. They help children discover the extraordinariness in the ordinary world around them.
It’s something that kids are already doing in their imagination, their play, and the rest of their daily activities. I love how the book makes you feel at the end, like the resolution to a fun day and a better understanding of how to maneuver through and appreciate the world in front of you. And if not, you can always dream about spring.
An interview with Author Karen A. Wyle
What is your relationship with winter?
I lived in Connecticut until age eight, and from what I remember, I greatly enjoyed it. (One winter, we had a snow that barely covered the ground. I was so eager to make a snowman that I, and probably a friend or two, constructed a “snowman” out of dirt and plastered on thin handfuls of snow.) Then we moved to California, and I didn’t see anything like winter for years.
When I was twelve, my family drove up to the mountains where snow could be found. At the first patch of snow I saw, I got them to stop the car and let me climb up on it. I’d forgotten how cold snow is! My hands quickly reminded me.
I love the rural setting. How did the setting shape the story as opposed to a winter set in the city or suburbs?
The story shaped the setting. I wanted my main character to experience what one might call winter in its pure form, rather than the way winter affects the life of a more built-up area.
The narrator utilizes all of the senses at some point to tell the story. Was this intentional?
Yes, it was. I have to nag myself to include more than sight and sound in my longer work (mostly novels). It was easier to remember to do this in a shorter book that focused on the experiences of one day.
How did you come up with all of the activities that would be featured in the story?
I wrote the first draft a long time ago and no longer remember the precise process, but I would guess I let my mind wander through all the ways a child could enjoy and experience a winter day.
At what point did you decide to start every page with “When it’s winter…”?
I wrestled with that decision. At first I worried that it would be too repetitive, but something about the rhythm of that repetition attracted me. It didn’t occur to me until a reviewer mentioned it that having the same words over and over would invite young children’s participation and assist early readers!
This book is perfect for early readers. Did that factor into the length of the book, the number of words on the page, the vocabulary used, etc.?
I’m glad to hear it! That goal shaped the choice of font and text size more than the text itself.
Do you have a favorite page?
I’m terrible at picking a single favorite of anything, but my favorite pages include the little girl looking up at ice-covered branches in the forest, pulling her dog on a little red sled behind her; girl and dog making clouds with their breath, and the girl sitting on her bed at night, looking out at stars shining through trees.
The dog is a cute companion. Was the dog always a part of the story, or was that the illustrator’s invention?
Illustrator Barbara Dessi’s invention! After Siski Kalla included a dog in most of the illustrations for You Can’t Kiss A Bubble, I should have thought of it myself, but I didn’t and was delighted to see the dog pop up in Barb’s sketches.
How unique was the experience of writing this book compared to your other work?
The main difference was the use of the repeated line and my decision to keep that repetition.
Do you plan to write about the other seasons?
I believe I have rough drafts of books about other seasons tucked away somewhere but hadn’t given any recent thought to hauling them out. Thanks for the suggestion!
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I love that this book has a rural setting! I live in the country and feel like I could relate to much of this charming story.
This sounds like such a sweet book! I definitely enjoyed winter more when I was a kid 🙂