So Much Snow by Kristen Schroeder

So Much Snow by Kristen Schroeder
Publisher: Random House Studio
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A beautifully illustrated, rollicking read-aloud about forest animals who are caught—literally up to their ears and antlers—in a snowstorm.

On Monday, it starts to snow.
Silent swirling.
How high will it go?

Follow seven forest creatures, from a tiny mouse to a giant moose, as they hunker down in a snowstorm. As the week progresses, the snow piles up and up–even past Moose’s antlers!

On Sunday, the sun starts to melt the snow, and it seems that, as the next week passes and it grows sunnier, spring has finally sprung. But wait…is that more snow?! This cumulative picture book is at once beautiful and lyrical and playful and joyful, with charming illustrations by a highly acclaimed illustrator.

Anything can change in an instant on a winter’s day.

The repetition was well done. I found it soothing to repeat the same themes and even some of the same words in multiple scenes. It was almost like listening to a lullaby about characters who might temporarily be in a little danger but who you somehow just know will live happily ever by the end. I’ll leave it up to other readers to figure out if that prediction of mine was correct!

I would have liked to see more attention paid to developing the storyline. The basic outline of it was there, but Ms. Schroeder could have done so much more with her ideas about what wild animals think of snowstorms and how they survive in them. I would have happily given this a higher rating if those questions had been better answered.

With that being said, I enjoyed the gentleness of this story. The characters were playful creatures who adored the first day or two of the storm. Seeing them invent new games to play as more snow kept falling made me wonder what they’d come up with next. It was a delight to watch them explore their winter wonderland and figure out how to deal with more snow than they were expecting.

So Much Snow was a peaceful look at late winter in the woods.