Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Description from the Publisher
Winner of the 2018 Caldecott Medal
A girl is lost in a snowstorm. A wolf cub is lost, too. How will they find their way home?
Paintings rich with feeling tell this satisfying story of friendship and trust. Here is a book set on a wintry night that will spark imaginations and warm hearts, from Matthew Cordell, author of Trouble Gum and Another Brother.
My Review
Page Count: 48
Genre: Children's Literature
I haven't really read any children's literature since I was a child, so I was excited to read this for my graduate children's lit class.
The illustrations in this book are beautiful! Even though the book has no words, Cordell has managed to portray the emotions and actions of the characters on every single page. The book opens with a wordless, cozy family scene. As the story evolves, Cordell uses color and space to evoke emotions in the reader. Huge pages of blue and white, snow and sky, depict the vastness of the little girl's walk home and the wolf cub's despair at being lost and separated from its mother.
I 'read' this twice before I could post my review. The combination of images and the plot in this book are a great way to teach empathy and compassion as well as bravery. I highly recommend Wolf in the Snow!
My Post from my Graduate Children's Lit Class:
Book Title: Wolf in the Snow
Age/Grade: Ages 2-6. I am keeping the age range the same because I feel like this book would be suited for the younger children who would look at the pictures, but I also think that older children in the process of learning early literacy skills would enjoy it as well.
APA Citation: Cordell, M. (2017). Wolf in the snow. New York, NY: Feiwel and Friends.
Description: “A girl is lost in a snowstorm. A wolf cub is lost, too. How will they find their way home? Paintings rich with feeling tell this satisfying story of friendship and trust. Here is a book set on a wintry night that will spark imaginations and warm hearts, from Matthew Cordell, author of Trouble Gum and Another Brother.”
Age/Grade Level: Ages 2-6.
Justification: This would be a hard book to use for Storytime because there are no words, but it can be used in other ways. I think it would be a great book to use, by an elementary school counselor (for example), to teach a lesson on empathy and compassion.
Bibliocognition: This book really stuck with me, even after I read it for a second time. I feel things very strongly, and the images of the little girl and the wolf trying to find their way back home broke my heart. The illustrations depict so much emotion in each image, and the images are beautiful. Because there are no words, each reader can take away something different and apply it to their own lives.
Keywords: Animals, friendship, empathy, lost child, winter, bravery
Scholarly Review: “In this mostly wordless picture book, a girl gets lost in a snowstorm while walking home from school. At the same time, a wolf pup gets separated from its pack. The girl discovers the pup and carries it through dangerous and icy terrain to reconnect with its pack, and the wolves assist the girl by howling to attract her searching family. Cordell's artistic approach is a little more free-form than in his past titles. It works well in depicting the twisting trees in the snowstorm but is more challenging to pull off with the characterization of the girl. Yet he succeeds. Only her eyes are visible in her large red triangular parka, with a scarf across her mouth and nose, as she trudges through the snow; there is so much emotion in her eyes that viewers know all that they need to know about this almost comically bundled, shapeless figure. Cordell's landscapes do a wonderful job showing the vastness and desperation of the girl's journey, his blended watercolors of the snow and trees adding eloquence to the experience. VERDICT A heartwarming adventure about helping others, best shared one-on-one to pore over the engaging images.”
Review Citation: Blenski, P. (2017, January). [Review of the book Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell]. School Library Journal, 63(1), 68. Retrieved September 9, 2018 from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A476559515/BRIP?u=uky_main&sid=BRIP&xid=cd7f2acd.
Awards: 2018 Caldecott Medal Winner
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