THE SNOW SPEAKS

An Alaskan author describes the experience of cold weather and snow with poetic grace and the conviction of one who knows the ``thin, brittle air'' that makes ``nostrils stick together'' and children who must stay ``buttoned, hooded, mittened, zipped'' while shaking snow from the mail. Dyer varies her charming, freely rendered watercolor illustrations from postcard size to full page, with backgrounds and borders of snowflakes or snowy repetitions of Carlstrom's images—feathers, waves, stars. A lovely evocation, nicely concluded with a cozy Christmas by the fire—and angels, in snow and sky. (Picture book. 4-8)