First Snow

by Bomi Park, illus. by Bomi Park

Bomi Park’s little picture book, First Snow, captures the magic of the first snow fall. Illustrated in gorgeous black and white charcoal. The only hint of color is the little girl’s red scarf.

On the first page, the snow begins to fall, and the narrator says, “Shhhh, listen…do you hear something?” The little girl crawls to the window to see snow falling against the window pane.

“Quick! Boots, coat, scarf, hat.”

And while the world is sleeping, the child steps outside, marveling at her footprints in the snow. She is joined by a small dog, and other animals along the way. She rolls a small snowball until it becomes a big one. And when she makes it on the other side of the woods filled with snow covered evergreen trees, there is a field full of children who also have rolled their snowballs silently through the night. One by one they join together to create snowmen! There are a couple pages that have no text on them, and those illustrations evoke the silent fall of snow. In particular, there is a great full-page illustration of the children and their accompanying snowmen floating into the sky. A child’s first snow is truly magical, and Bomi Park has captured a slice of that magic in her picture book.