fine reads: when winter comes

When Winter Comes, by Nancy Van Laan, illustrated by Susan Gaber, is a short and sweet read that answers questions like, "Where oh where do the leaves all go when winter comes and the cold winds blow?"

With calm, rhythmic text, this book manages to be at once informative and soothing. Classified as a title for "the very young," my almost three year old loved the somewhat muted, earth-toned acrylic-painted illustrations and the rhymes, and enjoyed being able to answer some of the posed questions himself.

Before cozying up in bed, a child (whose only real gender signifier is a very cute bob, though interestingly I can only find them referenced as 'he') explores the outdoors with two big people (one of whom looks rather female; the other is just an adult in winter clothes). They check out the icebound pond, wonder about where the flowers went, and eventually make their way back to the house, where the little one gets ready for sleep.

A perfect bedtime story for sensitive kids, this has no tension, just wintery imagery heavy on the beauty and wonder of the cold weather. When Winter Comes is relatable for anyone who lives in a snowy clime, but is equally appealing for those in warmer places who like a little seasonal vicarious living.

There's nothing didactic about the adults; I got the impression that they were -- as we were --along for the ride, being led by the child's questions about the nature that surrounds us. They seem fairly ambiguously-aged as well as gendered (in the case of the blue-coated grownup), and, because there's no mention of them by name or title, they could easily be two mamas, a mama and a papa, grandparents or any other combination of a vaguely feminine person and someone else. The clothing and surroundings don't speak to a time period, and so this story feels enduring despite having been written in 2000. Racial identitiy is similarly ambiguous; the family's dark hair and the child's olive complexion mean this story could come across as a depiction of many different ethnicities and a few different races, with some room for multiracial or multiethnic families to feel represented.  I, of course, imagined a little Jewish girl, and started scheming about how to recreate that hat.

Ratings:

Kids' Gender Neutrality: ***** 

Five stars for an outdoors-exploring, nature-interested kid dressed in simple, non-gendered clothing, without a name, with no pronouns and only a bob-with-bangs to serve as a hint to their gender. 

Family Situations: ****

Four stars for two companion adults, one of whom is probably female, not mentioned by name or pronoun but obviously loving and engaged. 

Multiculturalism: **

Two stars for a family that is not necessarily white, but not obviously anything else.

Gentle Parenting: ***

Three stars for involved adults who take a backseat to the child, and for a story with no correction and no negativity but lots of clearly (if poetically) stated answers to questions my own toddler might ask.

Story and Illustration Quality: ****

Four stars for beautiful pictures and truly endearing, lilting text. For a picture book, maybe a little too spare, but if this were a board book it would get five stars, easily. 

Our family's Overall Rating: ****

Four stars. George found it a "nice and quiet" exercise in rhyming, which he's loving lately, and especially liked the page about caterpillars. I appreciated the simplicity and warmth despite the snowy subject matter, and the inherent inclusiveness of a book with characters like these. When Winter Comes was enjoyable enough that I'll be looking for it to add to our permanent library here at home! Buy it at Powell's, or Amazon, or check it out at your local library.

fine reads

We like to read, a lot, my kids and I. Visiting the library is a weekly (and sometimes bi-weekly) thing for us, and I can't skip over the book section of any thrift shop, which is another place we frequent. I try not to deny my kids any books, even though some of George's choices have led to improv work at storytime, to avoid... questionable text either I wasn't ready to tackle or he wasn't ready to hear. Picture books can be surprisingly dogmatic and violent! Despite my willingness to let them take home just about anything, however, there are some themes that I seek out, and qualities I look for in a picture book, to sort of level the field and normalize other realities for my white, (so far) cis-gendered kids who happen to have a "traditional" two-parent family. Unfortunately, these qualities in children's literature are also pretty hard to find, and difficult to search. Nobody's making Amazon lists called "non-heteronormative, multicultural books with ambiguous family situations your toddler will LOVE!" So goes the refrain of every over-achiever: I'll just do it myself. 

In a new series, Fine Reads, I'll be reviewing books we discover that are widely available online at Amazon or, preferably, Powell's, and rating them based on these criteria:

Kids' gender neutrality: I'll be noting whether or not there are gender pronouns used, if the children in the stories have gender-neutral names, or present in a typically-gendered way. 

Family situations: I'll be looking for books that include non-traditional families, including same sex parents, single parent families, children raised by non-biological parents (adoptive parents, grandparents, surrogate and foster families, etc.), or books that simply don't specify who the pictured adults are. 

Multiculturalism: This does not mean books about "the first Thanksgiving" and the like. I'm on the lookout for stories that feature regular ol' non-white or ethnically ambiguous families/children without tokenizing or fetishizing. 

Gentle parenting: Not looking for incidences of punishment or other bummers, though I'm not anti-parents just don't understand situations á la Maurice Sendak's entire oeuvre. 

Story and illustration quality: With obvious bias, but I'll comment on these, too. I'm often disappointed in children's books for their inattention to the story in favor of hip or pretty pictures. 

and, finally, Our family's overall rating: I'll be using a star system, with one being the lowest and five the highest. I'll link to where you can purchase the book for yourself, and no posts will be sponsored or otherwise subsidized unless information to the contrary is clearly stated. I'm not interested in shilling books for anyone, just in providing a resource for llikeminded parents and reading some good books with my kids. 

Are there any other criteria you'd like to see me cover? Leave a comment and I may add it to the list! Look for the first review coming in a few days; we checked out a very sweet title from our library last week!