By Maureen Wright
Illustrated by Stephen Gilpin
Published on: December 4, 2012

Poor Sneezy the Snowman, he just can’t get warm. This cute picture book, available through Kindle Unlimited, was a welcome read when I decided I was ready to start getting into the holiday season.

Description:

B-R-R-R-R! AH-CHOO! Sneezy the Snowman is cold, cold, cold. To warm up, he drinks cocoa, sits in a hot tub, stands near a warm fire – and melts! But the children know just what to do to build him up again – and make him feel “just right”. Hilarity chills the air with playful mixed-media illustrations by Stephen Gilpin as Sneezy attempts to warm himself with some silly results.

Thoughts:

I know exactly how Sneezy feels. I hate, hate, hate, being cold. I love the warm months of the year and always look forward to late winter/spring when it starts to warm up.

In Sneezy the Snowman, Sneezy is cold. He’s way too cold and decides he needs a nice drink of cocoa to warm him up. Sound good? Nope, because cocoa is too hot and he becomes a puddle. Thankfully, the three children with him are there to help put him back together again.

Then, the children start giving him some of their clothes to help keep him warm – first a hat, then a scarf, followed by a coat. Each time it helps, but each time he is still a bit too cold and goes for something extra hot, like a hot tub or a fire, which all end in puddle disaster. Finally with all his new layers of clothing, he starts to realize he may be too hot, but this time the children are there to avert disaster of any kind and come up with a new solution.

When reading through this picture book I couldn’t quite decide if it was supposed to be completely in rhyme or just parts of it. So, I’ve decided the story is partial rhyme. If it is completely rhyme, I wasn’t really able to pick it up on some of the pages, but on other pages there was no doubt. I also found there is a nice repetition of words and phrases, especially when Sneezy is being given something new to wear and during the puddle scenes.

The illustrations are generally full page, with the exceptions of a few pages where the background is snow. In addition to Sneezy and the three children are two cardinals that appear on every page where you may find them helping by bringing a carrot or putting him back together. But there are also have some humorous moments that young and old will enjoy looking at together. In one illustration the birds are sitting in the hot tub with Sneezy (one is on an inner tube while the other one is snorkeling). Another picture shows one throwing a tiny snowball at the other. My favorite though is the very first illustration where they are having hot cocoa with Sneezy in the tree – except their hot cocoa is in teeny-tiny bird sized mugs. It wasn’t necessarily funny, but I found it really cute.

Overall, a very enjoyable picture book to pick up that leaves you feeling warm and cozy at the end.

Rating: 4.5 stars