Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts

December 10, 2025

It Snowed

Written and illustrated by Meaghan Smith
Nimbus Publishing
978-1-77471-413-3
32 pp.
Ages 3–7
November 2025 
 
In my part of the country, many children (and adults) woke up today to a winter wonderland. And that wonder is captured in the text and art of Meaghan Smith in It Snowed.
 
From It Snowed, written and illustrated by Meaghan Smith
Two young children wake up to find that it snowed in the night. They are delighted, along with their dog and maybe their cat, to see deep drifts of snow have coated the yard and the road. When their parents suggest a day to play hooky, they bundle up and go sledding. 
How merry
    How bright
A snowfall turns the 
     world into a lovely sight (pp. 20–21) 
When the day ends, and after an evening by the fireside, the children head to bed after wishing on a star for, you guessed it, another snow day.
From It Snowed, written and illustrated by Meaghan Smith
Meaghan Smith may be the author-illustrator of It Snowed but she's also the award-winning singer-songwriter who wrote the song titled "It Snowed." (You can listen to different versions of her song on her YouTube channel.) That song, and now this picture book, capture children's joy of a snow day when it's all about the promise of play in the snow. It's about being outside the whole day, overlooking the cold, and only coming inside to warm up, eat, and then get ready for bed. It's a special time and the stuff of memories.
 
The rhyming text points to its derivation from a song, but Meaghan Smith's illustrations give it a new dimension, one of softness and of sensation. Those children, and even their pets and wildlife, remind us that snow gives us a different world. It can be one of ordinary play, but it can also be one of magic. And Meaghan Smith's art sparkles just as snow does.
From It Snowed, written and illustrated by Meaghan Smith
We'll have many more days of snow ahead—apparently we're in for more cold and snow this winter—so it'll be a perfect opportunity to bring out It Snowed to read and to sing after a day of play and perhaps after enjoying a hot chocolate and a fire. It'll be a treat for bedtime and to spark some delightful dreams about yet another snow day.

June 23, 2014

Summer's On! A youngCanLit Picture Book list



Time to go on summer holidays, enjoy or endure vacations with or without family, and savour our Canadian summer, whether it be on the coast, in the city, in the north or in the bush, or even away.  Summer's on!

PICTURE BOOKS


Are We There Yet?
by Nancy Crystal
Scholastic
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
1991

Camping
by Nancy Hundal
Illustrated by Brian Deines
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 8-11
2002        

Checkers and Dot at the Beach
by J. Torres
Illustrated by J. Lum
16 pp.
Ages 0-3
2012

Dippers
by Barbara Nichol
Illustrated by Barry Moser
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 8+
1997

The Fishing Summer
by Teddy Jam
Illustrated by Ange Zhang
Groundwood
32 pp.
Ages 4-9
1997

Goldsworthy and Mort in Summer Fun
by Marcia Vaughan
Illustrated by Linda Hendry
HarperCollins
64 pp.
Ages 5-6
1990

In the Tree House
by Andrew Larson
Illustrated by Dušan Petricic
Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 5-10
2013

Kitten's Summer
by Eugenie Fernandes
Kids Can Press
24 pp.
Ages 1-4
2011

Mayfly
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 2-7
2004

My Family Vacation   
by Dayal Kaur Khalsa
Tundra Books
24 pp.
Ages 6-9
2003

Nana's Summer Surprise
by Heather Hart-Sussman
Illustrated by Georgia Graham
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 5-7
2013

A Prairie Boy's Summer
by William Kurelek
Tundra Books
48 pp.
Ages 8-12
1975

Prairie Summer
by Nancy Hundal
Illustrated by Brian Deines
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
34 pp.
1999

Ready for Summer
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
16 pp.
Ages 1-3
2008

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach
by Mélanie Watt
Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 5-10
2008

Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping
by Mélanie Watt
Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 5-10
2013
Reviewed here

Simon in Summer
by Gilles Tibo
Tundra Books
24 pp.
Ages 3-8
1991

The Summer of the Marco Polo
by Lynn Manuel
Illustrated by Kasia Charko
Orca Book Publishers
32 pp.
2007

Travels for Two: Stories and Lies from My Childhood
by Stephane Poulin
Annick Press
32 pp.
Ages 5-8
1991

The Twelve Days of Summer
by Jan Andrews
Illustrated by Susan Rennick Jolliffe
Orca
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2005

When We Go Camping
by Margriet Ruurs
Illustrated by Andrew Kiss
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 6-8
2001

Zoe's Sunny Day
by Barbara Reid
Scholastic Canada
10 pp.
Ages 1-3
2001