First Steps, First Snow by Harriet Hodgson
Publisher: BQB Publishing
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Animals and nature add wonder to daily life. First Steps, First Snow connects young readers to nature, nocturnal animals, and fosters mindfulness.

Whether it’s changing seasons, changing scenes, or observing wildlife, nature adds wonder to our lives. First Steps, First Snow (based on a true story) describes a magical walk in the woods on a winter night.

The poem guides readers on the walk and encourages the observation of nature. Watercolor illustrations show nocturnal animals that live in forests.

At the end, the two children and the animals are all snug and sound asleep—a perfect bedtime story for readers of all ages.

Anything can happen after a snowstorm.

The quiet, peaceful storyline fit the theme perfectly. There’s nothing like being the first person to walk through the snow after a snowstorm. It’s something that almost everyone who lives in a climate that is cold enough for snow to fall will have personal experience with. The details might change a little depending on whether someone is in a forest, a backyard, or walking just down a street, but the relaxing nature of it remains the same everywhere. It made me yearn for winter.

One of the biggest strengths of this picture book was how open-ended it was. The characters never revealed their names or how they knew each other, so those details could easily be added in or changed according to reader preference. I love finding tales that allow for that sort of creativity and audience participation. Not everything needs to be figured out by the author ahead of time in cases like this one.

I smiled as I read the ending. It left room for a sequel if one is ever written, but it also wrapped up the current plot satisfactorily while once again leaving lots of space for readers of all ages to fill in the gaps if they wished to. The way it was written also made sense for anyone who prefers not to participate in stories in this way. Either way, it was the end of a happy day out in the woods which was exactly what it needed to be.

First Steps, First Snow was a heartwarming read.