The Book Basket: Winter

Books for February 2023

Hey everyone!

We are expecting a continued pattern of warmish winter weather here in North Carolina for the foreseeable future. It has not been a very brutal winter, though the birds still feed at our feeders as though their very lives depend on it.

No matter where you’re living, you still have another month or so until winter draws to its official meteorological close.¹ So our first round of Book Basket recommendations are going to be on the topic of WINTER; these are books you can cozy up around with some hot chocolate and enjoy indoors.

You might even want to bundle up and read one or two outside! As someone² once said, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”

Here are some of our favorite winter titles:

SNOW: This book is a simple little treasure. It has very little text and rewards those who like to pay attention to pictures! The snowflakes do their tricky work of seeming little but having a big impact.

Owl Moon: Jane Yolen should be on your short list of sought-after children’s authors, and this is perhaps her finest. Winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1988 for its beautiful illustrations, this book captures a nighttime walk in the winter. A wonderful read-aloud!

The Snowy Day: This is the first book I ever read aloud to one of my children. My oldest son was born on a snowy Wednesday in January, and that Saturday, when we brought him home, was a snowy day as well. From Ezra Jack Keats, this book has excellent word pictures and sound effects, capturing what it’s like to walk around in the snow.

The Mitten: Jan Brett’s visually stunning story of a little boy who loses the mitten his grandmother made for him. The woodland creatures make it a home. Brett’s illustrations always have more to see — be sure to look around the edges of the pages for treasures.

Katy and the Big Snow: I will always take the opportunity to recommend a Virginia Lee Burton title. She made Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel famous, but she also wrote about a hardworking snowplow named Katy. This is another one with tiny details around the borders of the pages. Take time with it — my little ones loved this book.

And lastly: Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal. This book explores that space that naturalists call the “subnivean zone,” which is a tiny space between the earth and the fallen snow. We see how different animals — mouse, bee, fox, bear, and more — survive the winter. Meanwhile, the narrator and her dad ski over top of the snow. Delightful illustrations!

            Suppose we did our work
            like the snow, quietly, quietly.
            leaving nothing out.
                                                                 —Wendell Berry from his collection, Leavings

A note on purchase links: I’m a happy supporter of independent bookshops, so the links I provide will almost always go to bookshop.org. For my local readers, I heartily recommend you buy them through our favorite, Goldberry Books, but you might have a shop closer to you. Of course, you can always find these selections on That Big Website That Ships Quickly, But Not As Quickly as It Used To, and Remember How They Sucked Us All In By Being a Bookstore to Begin With? I’m also a big fan of saving money and patronizing your local library. Happy reading!

1. This ends on February 28th, whereas astronomical winter extends until the Spring equinox (March 21).

2. Lots of people want to lay claim to this quote! I thought it was Charlotte Mason. It may not be. *shrug*