HERE COMES JACK FROST

Gorgeous prints illuminate an unusual friendship. The first few spreads are rendered in black and dull blue, as a little boy mopes inside with his dog: “I hate winter.” But when he sees “strange patterns [appear] on his window,” he’s lured outside into a gorgeous white-and-blue fairyland, courtesy of Jack Frost, a spiky creature with elf shoes. After an initial period of suspicion, they play together all winter, with Jack Frost’s warning never to “mention anything warm in front of [him]” hanging in the air. This outing partakes of the striking visual sense of Kohara’s award-wining Ghosts in the House (2008), but it is almost entirely lacking in the earlier book’s whimsy of story and play of illustrations against text. Probably most disappointing is the entirely unmagical explanation of Jack Frost’s magic—too bad. (Picture book. 3-5)