Snowmen at Christmas (Snowmen)

The husband-and-wife team who created the popular Snowmen at Night revisits their snowy creations to see how snowmen celebrate Christmas. The rhyming text describes how the snowmen (and snow women, snow children and one snow dog) gather late at night in the empty town for a holiday gathering. They decorate a tree, play games and enjoy icy-cold snacks (snow cones, of course) before the snowman Santa arrives with presents made of snow for all. Carols around the tree conclude the festivities and the snow folk take up their proper posts again just before the sun rises. The illustrations are infused with mysterious blue or lavender light that highlights the rounded figures of the snow people, with lots of additional sparkling effects from the town’s Christmas lights and streetlights. The snowmen are quite lively for characters with no legs and twig-thin arms, and they really do seem to have lives of their own that exist on some other icy plane. As in the previous story, there are tiny hidden pictures to search for in each illustration. (Picture book. 4-8)

Copyright 2005 Kirkus Reviews, LLC Used with permission

The roly-poly, free-spirited stars (and excellent sledders) of "Snowmen at Night "are back, this time to celebrate Christmas, snowman style. Tree trimming, carols and ice cream are all part of the festive agenda -as is a visit from "the snowman Kris Kringle." Jazzy rhyming verse keeps a buoyant party beat as Mark Buehner's holiday lights and street lamps twinkle and glow like the real thing. Readers will smile watching these nimble and nattily accessorized snowmen dancing, decorating cookies and playing the fiddle before they settle back into place for Christmas, human style. Seek-and-find images on each page add to the excitement; a boxed set of both books doubles the fun. ($32.99 ISBN 0-8037-3108-6). Ages 4-up. (Sept.)

Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly, Used with permission.