The Cabin Key by Gloria Rand & Illus by Ted Rand

Gloria and Ted Rand are an amazing husband/wife team. However, I think they sometimes write books for adults more than children. As a somewhat nerdy/serious kid, I loved them then and I love them now, but they are not books that are going to get kids worked up. They are quiet and generally somewhat nostalgic. And they tend to be wordy. 

This story is no different. Using memories of the Rand family cabin, the story follows a little girl and her experiences at the cabin through her childhood. 

Great story, but you need to know your audience. Are they thoughtful? Can they sit quietly for several paragraphs before another page turn/picture? 

It was a very snowy day when I was taking picture, which seemed  fitting. 

I even had a snowy pinecone. 

Ted Rand does such brilliant landscape/nature scenes. 

The little girl is entrusted with unlocking the door, which is a huge honor. 

Aren't these pictures great? 

Carrying in the wood

Love, love, love this picture! 

The joys of enamelware.

Listening to stories and watching the flames.

Coziness. Doesn't that blanket look realistic?! 

Also, the next picture (that I didn't get a picture of) shows the little mice scurrying around, so not cozy and no sleep for me. 

The family cabin is all very well and good, but mice ruin all the warm fuzzys. My husband's family has a family cabin in the Rocky Mountains. One time we took my cousin and his wife for a weekend and didn't bring quite enough bedding, so we gave them the sleeping bags and ended up using the sheets/blankets that were already on the bed. It was dark when we went to sleep and I just thought there was sand in the sheets, but.... in the morning, I saw it wasn't sand. It was mouse dirt. 

I still love the cabin, but I don't plan on forgetting sleeping bags ever again. 

A Day for Skating by Sarah Sullivan & Illus by Madeline Valentine

This is a cozy little book about a little girl whose father takes her ice skating. 

I love a good winter scene!

Lacing up the skates

Trying out the skates.

Getting a helping hand

Hockey

Quaint bridges

Bonfire!

A hot bath with a faithful father in attendance. 

And night time creatures on the pond. 

Out of the Woods by Rebecca Bond

A story about a wildfire in Northern Ontario. 

A story about creatures, both human and animals, coming together in their common fear.

Lovely illustrations!

Antonio Willie Giroux (a great name if ever there was one) lived with his mother who ran a boarding house on the edge of a lake in rural Ontario. 

It was a pretty great life for a kid--so much to see, so many people to dote on him and teach him how to do things. 

The second floor was full of sportsmen come to do some hunting and fishing. 

The top floor was filled with the French Canadians working in the nearby timber harvesting outfits. Willie loved spending time up there listening to words in French, English, and several different Native American languages. 

One summer day, smoke came out of the woods and threatened their lives. 

As the fire edged closer, people crowded into the lake for safety. 

And as it got even closer, wild animals fled from the woods into the lake with the humans. 

And they all stood together, uncommon companions, watching the fire rage by them. Somehow in their common fear, predators did not attack prey, but somehow understood that this situation was beyond the realm of their conventional relationship. 

By some miracle, the hotel did not burn down. So they crept back after the fire, remembering the moment they stood shoulder to haunch with the wild things of the forest. 

Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell

When this won the Caldecott last year, I read this book and... didn't quite get it. The illustrations were somewhat primitive and almost too simple. 

The story was also somewhat simplistic with apparently no character development. 

What was the big deal here?  

Last month, on a whim I picked it up again to read to my Pre-K class. They had been pretty antsy the past few days and I decided going with a wordless book would be great since I could speed through it or linger over it depending on their behavior. 

The Pre-K teacher warned me as she dropped them off that they were having a little bit of a hard day. 

So I decided I was going to speed through this book. But I couldn't help asking them a few questions.

What do you see in this picture? 

This little girl seems to be going somewhere, but her parents aren't. Where could she be going? Where do you go while your parents stay home? (School--surprisingly, this stumped them!)

As she leaves school, what is happening?  

What do you notice is different about one of these wolves? 

What is happening in this picture? 

Before I had gotten very far into the book, I suddenly realized the entire class was captivated. 

The story was simple enough they could understand it. The words being used to talk about each picture were often words they themselves came up with, so were understandable. 

I asked them about the emotions of each character. 

How were they feeling? 

One of the big questions the students really got into was--What would you do in this situation? Would you bring the baby wolf to his or her mother or bring the baby wolf home? 

The real dangers my rural students could enter into

Oh my goodness. This picture and...

....this one are so evocative of surprise and uncertainty. 

One emotion my students had a hard time identifying was relief. However, when I told them it was the feeling you have when you look up and don't see your Mom or Dad near you in the store and get scared and then turn around and see them right behind you; scared, but then glad, they understood it. 

Exhaustion sets in as night falls and the little girl heads home. 

Her family and dog are looking for her, but they are still far away.

What do you think the wolves are going to do to her? 

The gentleness of the wolves was a surprise.

Again, we talked about relief. 

And coziness. 

We spent over 15 minutes pouring over this book and discussing it in detail. And the students were completely absorbed in the drama and the possibilities in the story. 

And now, I am deeply in love with this book. I love it. Adore it. 

I think it is a book you need to spend time with. The lack of words leaves so much up to the reader. The first time I looked at it, I flipped through it quickly and missed the potential depth. 

But taking a little time, you see so much more.