Over and Under the Snow

By Kate Messner with art by Christopher Silas Neal

A wintry, snowy wood provides the perfect setting for this picture book in which a young girl glides over the snow and learns about a hidden network of life going on under the snow, even as there is little sign of life above. In the last scene, she goes from over the snow to under the covers and under the stars.

The story and illustrations combine perfectly to create this wintry presentation of woodland animals and their habitat, and how the activities under the snow relate to what happens in the spring. The Author’s Note at the end of the book describes the wintry setting in more scientific terms and also describes each of the animals presented in the book, making it a nice addition to a unit on  Woodland Animals.

Messner, K. (2011). Over and under the snow. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.