Old Winter - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Old Winter, a rotund elderly gentleman in a green overcoat, causes a prolonged season when he falls asleep in the meat locker at the P & J Supermarket after overhearing the townspeople complain. "He had brought beautiful, cold, sparkling winter to this puny little flat-topped town, and did they care?...No, they wanted to...run him out of town." Alley's cartoon drawings of children, adults, and animals bustling about in the store and snowy streets create a humorous profusion of activity in the art that's reminiscent of Steven Kellogg's work. The small, square format of the book is pleasing with occasional square vignettes set into broader scenes, breaking up some of the clutter. The amusing personification of the seasons as contemporary, down-to-earth folks extends to a woman in sunglasses, sandals, and a bright green T-shirt who arrives in a shiny yellow car with her daughters, Daff and Violet. Old Winter heads for the pampas in Argentina as Spring scatters flower seeds through the north. The tongue-in-cheek explanation will leave some readers wondering when Summer and Autumn might show up at the P & J.
Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3^-6. The night before he plans to fly south, Old Winter overhears the townspeople complaining about the dirty snow, heavy clothes, and rotten winter. Incensed, he holes up in the meat locker of the supermarket and hibernates, while outside the increasingly short-tempered citizens stagger through two more months of snow, ice, and slush. Spring arrives in a daffodil-yellow car and urges Old Winter to leave for Chile, where all nature longs for him to come again. Children will delight in the details of Alley's lively ink-and-watercolor illustrations: a bird skis along a telephone wire, a homeowner climbs up to the television antenna to melt the ice off with a hair drier, and two people desperately lunge for the last shovel at the hardware store (marked $62). The many teachers hunting for picture books depicting the change of seasons will find this a refreshing choice for reading aloud. Carolyn Phelan