An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco

I didn't mean to have two book reviews by the same author this month, especially with Christmas titles, but it just happened that way. I fell in love with Patricia Polacco's Christmas story, An Orange for Frankie, when I read it for the first time, to my children before bed.

The story is about a large family, the Stowells, who don't have a lot, but have enough and each other, and Christmas is coming. The family holds off on decorating until their Pa gets back from getting their Christmas oranges to put on the mantle, one for each child. It's Frankie's favorite thing about Christmas. Although Pa is taking longer than normal to return, the family distracts themselves with making food and helping a train car full of hobos to wash up with warm bath, eat, and drink hot coffee, perhaps the first real meal they've had in weeks.

Frankie enjoys talking to the men and recognizes some of them from times before. He sees a new man who is older than the others, and notices he doesn't even have a shirt on underneath his threadbare coat. He tells the 'mister' to stay right there and he gets his nicest Christmas sweater (and the only one that fits well, knitted by his sister) to give to the man to keep warm in.

A few days after this encounter, the family is sick with worry over their Pa, as the winter weather has been blowing hard for days. If I told you the two important things that happen in the end of the book, I'd be spoiling the story for you. All that to say, it's a book about kindness, sharing with others who have less, and the love between a family. A longer book than most bedtime stories, but one that is as touching as it is beautifully illustrated, and surely worth the time spent sharing it together.

Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

"Waiting for Winter" is a cute story about the forest animals preparing for winter. The story opens with a deer telling a squirrel, "Winter is almost here. I think it's going to snow."

The squirrel does not know snow. He hibernates through the winter. Deer tells Squirrel, "Snow is white and wet and cold and soft."

Now, for someone who knows snow, that is a good description, right? But if you had no frame of reference to know snow... what would you envision?

When I was in design school, we were asked to bring an object to class. Be creative. No parameters, just an object. You couldn't show it to your classmates. You were then set up with a partner, and the assignment was to describe your object. You'd be amazed at how difficult it was to determine the mystery object from vague descriptors. This book made me flash back on that assignment... and smile at the ridiculousness that ensued with the squirrel.

Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

Squirrel tries in vain to wait for snow. But he gets sleepy, so he decides to exercise. Which wakes up Hedgehog. Now Hedgehog wants to see snow. But when exercise doesn't work to stay awake, they try singing... which wakes up Bear. Now bear wants to see snow.

So the three forest animals begin to wonder... what if the first snowflake already fell? What if it is already winter? So they split up in search of the first snowflake. They each return with an object that they think is snow. The result is hilarious.

The illustrations are sketchy, loose pencil drawings with minimal splashes of color in the animals. The animals are drawn with a tremendous amount of character and liveliness. Squirrel practically quivers and shakes off the page with his energy, Hedgehog is a more serious and cuddly character with leaves and a berry sticking in his quills, and Bear has the rumpled, exasperated look of a bear disturbed from his slumber.