Snow Day - Softcover

Kindergarten-Grade 4?Fain's first picture book is a heartwarming tribute to special childhood memories of schools closed due to winter storms. Maggie Murphy is happier than most students that there's no school at St. Bridget's one morning because her teacher, Sister Agatha Ann, has given her a dreaded homework assignment; she is to write a poem and recite it in front of the entire class. Maggie's day of freedom is short-lived, for who should appear at the sledding hill but Sister Agatha Ann and several other nuns for some fun in the snow. Student and teacher both learn to appreciate the need for poetic and illustrative art forms after they share Maggie's sled and win the race to the bottom of the hill. The text has a lyrical quality and beautiful imagery?"Her neighborhood was covered in deep, blue softness, as if every cloud in the sky had fallen to the ground"?set off by luminous oil illustrations that perfectly depict the skies of late December when snow is in the air. Children will identify immediately with Maggie and her dilemma. Few will realize that the story is set more than 30 years in the past until the author's clue on the final page. This timeless quality will ensure that Snow Day remains a favorite winter read-aloud for years to come.?Maura Bresnahan, Topsfield Town Library, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fain's first book for children, demure and even stilted in text and art, attempts to teach a lesson about self-expression. Clever Maggie Murphy usually keeps a close watch on her stern teacher, Sister Agatha Ann, but one day she is caught drawing--a drawing that has spilled onto her desktop. For defacing school property, Maggie has special homework: She has to write a poem overnight and present it the next day in school. Maggie struggles that night and fails; the next day there is no reprieve--a school holiday because of heavy snowfall--because Sister Agatha Ann is sledding at School Hill. Maggie's teacher not only helps her win a sled race, but proves to Maggie that pictures can be drawn in words. She improvises a poem on the spot, an exercise that helps her student successfully complete her assignment. A car, the children's clothing, and Sister Agatha Ann's full-length habit help place the story, revealed as 1961 on the last page, but the plot seems convoluted for the simple resolution, and despite a text that implies that the siblings are various ages, Maggie's brothers and sisters look the same age as she is. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.