Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner

 Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner

Rating: 5 stars

We read this library book--another of Lorelei's quality check-outs--and bought it a few hours later.  We liked it that much!

I only bought it (read: let me justify my purchase to you) because I was really happy to find the board book version.  The number of words on each page, nice, rollicking rhyme, and hilarious pictures make it a fantastic choice for Kiefer right now.  He's nearly 19 months and definitely into books.  He walks up to me, book in hand, sees me sitting "criss-cross-applesauce" and turns around a full two feet in front of me, backs up, and then plops down happily when his feet hit my legs.  I find it altogether adorable, makes me want to freeze time.

But what does Kiefer like even more than the laps of his parents?  The laps of his siblings, of course.  Just today he sat in Ben's lap for the first time.  Both boys grinned wildly as Ben "read" the book to him, trying to balance a boy almost equal his size and remember to turn the pages of the book.  I find THAT equally adorable, makes me want to freeze time some more.

So if there's a book that is going to cause more of these cute moments to happen, I'm buying it!

On stormy evenings I would play / My favorite games with him;
On sunny days I'd teach him how / To dive and how to swim.

This wonderful, silly book is about a boy who wishes he his snowman could stay with him all year long instead of melting when the warm sun comes out.  The whole book is about what the boy would do with him.  The huge illustrations are so great and fun!  You see boy and snowman flying kites, playing pirates, going to the zoo, riding a roller coaster, watching fireworks, playing chess, getting buried in the sand.

For Ben it is laugh-out-loud silly, and SO FUN to be the parent who gets to read it, and gets to ask, "Have you ever seen a snowman at the zoo?!" and then go on and on (and on and on) about all the other things that would be fun to do with a snowman that are not in the book.  The things on our list: throw rocks in the creek, go to the library, play soccer, ride on a train.

This is a fantastic book for any age kid--or, like in our house, every age kid.  I've heard through the grapevine that the kids are getting Snowmen At Christmas from Grammy...  I hope the gift-opening will pause long enough for us to read it on Christmas morning, because I'm excited to read it.