8 Great Books For Kids To Read This Winter

Whether you live where it snows in the wintertime or where it is sunny and warm all year, these titles will transport you to a winter wonderland!

Follow the Trail: Winter Wonderland by DK

Perfect for toddlers, young readers will enjoy following the tactile trails and seeing adorable photos of arctic animals. Follow the Trail: Winter Wonderland is an excellent board book. Readers will enjoy feeling the different textures, identifying shapes, and spotting the other animals.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

The Snowy Day is a phenomenal Caldecott (award for a most distinguished picture book) winning book that chronicles a little boy’s day in the snow. Children will see themselves in Peter, the book’s protagonist. Peter enjoys simple activities, like finding a nice stick to make marks in the snow. Readers may relate to Peter’s disappointment that he is not old enough to throw snowballs with the big kids. Readers of all ages will delight in Keats’s magnificent colorful collage artwork. Snowy Day is a treasure that belongs on all children’s bookshelves.

Fun facts:

• The Snowy Day is the first children’s book featuring a person of color to win a children’s literary award.
• The number one title circulated in the New York Public Libraries of all time.

Little Red Gliding Hood Written by Tara Lazar and Illustrated by Troy Cummings

This story is a delightful fractured fairy tale of the beloved Little Red Riding Hood. In Little Red Gliding Hood, Little Red teams up with the Wolf in an ice skating competition to win new skates. Enjoy finding the witty references included throughout the book to other fairy tales!

If you want to read more fractured fairy tales (complete post forthcoming), check out my write-up to Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems here.

Brave Irene by William Steig

Mrs. Bobbin, a dressmaker, finishes the Duchesse’s gown on the day of a ball but is too ill to deliver it. Irene volunteers to do so in her stead and brave the fierce weather. Read this book by the author of Shrek to find out if she can save the day! 

Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell is a magnificent (mainly) wordless picture book about friendship and kindness, which won the Caldecott Medal in 2018. Wordless books are fun because whoever is “reading” can dictate a unique story based on their interpretations of the illustrations. Cordell’s whimsical paintings are a pleasure to look at during quiet time or for creative writing exercises in the classroom. Invite young friends to dictate the story; no two stories will be the same!

Snowmen at Night Written by Caralyn Buehner & Illustrated by Mark Buehner

Have you ever wondered what snowmen do at night? Snowmen at Night cleverly describes what a young child imagines his snowman doing at night after discovering a change in his snowman’s appearance from the previous day. Enjoy spotting this magical winter tale’s hidden figures (pictures in the moon, rabbit instead of a snow angel). 

The Mitten by Jan Brett

The Mitten by Jan Brett is a classic winter read-aloud! Based on a beloved Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten is a beautifully developed picture book in content and illustrations. Nikki, a young boy, asks his grandmother to knit him mittens the color of snow. Fearful that Nikki might lose the mittens in the snow, she hesitates to make them only after Nikki promises not to lose them. After Nikki drops one of the mittens, the knitted outerwear provides shelter and warmth to a slew of animals. Readers will enjoy reading/hearing about how a fox, bear, owl, rabbit, mole, and more find their way into Nikki’s glove.

I recently visited a fantastic exhibit on the works of Jan Brett; you can read about that experience here.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser

If you are looking for an excellent chapter book for a middle-grade reader–look no further! The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser is the perfect book to snuggle up and read on a cold, dreary day or an engaging winter read-aloud! The Vanderbeekers are a biracial family with five kids, a bunny, a dog, and a cat who live in a Harlem brownstone apartment. The kids love their home, their street, and their neighbors. Just before Christmas, the kids learn that their grumpy landlord will soon be evicting them. What are these tenacious problem-solving kids to do?

If you are a fan of Sydney Taylor’s All of A Kind Family (Read my review here) or the Cheaper By the Dozen film, this book is for you! 

Love to hear YOUR thoughts!

I am always on the lookout for a great book! Please DM me on Instagram @playgroundlibrarian or Facebook at Sheryl Hoffman with recommendations!

Happy Reading!

XO, Sheryl