"The skies are gray. The rooftops are gray. The whole city is gray. / Then... one snowflake." Using verbal understatement and perfect pacing, Shulevitz creates a sense of the season's first snowfall, beginning slowly and softly, and gradually leading up to a blizzard of words that expresses a child's delight with snow. Throughout the story, a small boy and his dog revel in the transformation of the gray city into a winter wonderland. He relies completely on his own observations, as his grandfather and the people he meets on the street insist that the snow is insignificant. Here the adults put their faith in news reports which dully predict "no snow." But the child knows better, as he sees with all his senses, as well as with his imagination. That the snow works its magic on ordinary city streets is further enhanced in the illustrations that show Mother Goose characters coming to life and emerging from a book shop window to dance through the snowy streets with the boy and his dog. Winner, 1999 Charlotte Zolotow Award. (Ages 3-7)

A Caldecott Honor Book

"It's snowing, said boy with dog.
"It's only a snowflake," said grandfather with beard.

No one thinks one or two snowflakes will amount to anything. Not the man with the hat or the lady with the umbrella. Not even the television or the radio forecasters. But one boy and his dog have faith that the snow will amount to something spectacular, and when flakes start to swirl down on the city, they are also the only ones who know how to truly enjoy it. This playful depiction of a snowy day and the transformation of a city is perfectly captured in simple, poetic text and lively watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations.