Non-Fiction Winter Across America

Simon, Seymour. 1994. WINTER ACROSS AMERICA. New York, NY .Hyperion. ISBN 0786800194

WINTER ACROSS AMERICA is a trip from Alaska to Florida during the winter months. As the book travels across America the reader begins to see the beauty and importance of the coldest season- winter. “Winter is both an ending and beginning.” We see this through the plants and animals. It is the beginning of the migration for many birds, and gray whales. It is the beginning of a quiet resting time for the animals that hibernate such as the “turtles, frogs, and salamanders.” The Joshua tree of the Mojave Desert needs the cold winter season to grow again in the spring. As the reader travels to Florida, winter looks different but serves a refuge to the birds that have migrated to warmer climates. The photographs are beautiful images of winter events. Each of the photographs supports the facts and the vocabulary that is heard more often in the winter months. The picture of the blizzard helps the young reader understand what “the visibility is one-quarter of a mile or less” looks like and how it must feel in the cold, quiet months of winter. “Winter brings rest and renewal. It is a pause in the great, eternal cycle of the seasons.”

Booklist (Vol. 91, No. 6 (November 15, 1994))-“Excellent color photographs, often breathtaking scenes of landscapes and animals, appear throughout the book.”
Kirkus Review (1994)-“A book smart enough to be kept on the reference shelf, but with photos that tempt you to tear them out and frame them.”
Winter across America is a book I will use with my first grade class during our unit on weather and seasons. It will be a resource to use when discussing the differences in the seasons as well as how winter affects plants and animals. Winter Across America is a great way to bring in maps also. This book is written in a way that I can read a page or two or the whole book. The reading level is a little high for most of my students, but the photographs make it is easy for the students to go back and find how winter affects different plants and animals. Other books that I would have available would be:

Cole, Brock. THE WINTER WREN. (Farrar, 1984 ISBN 0374384541.
Brett, Jan. THE MITTEN. (Putnam, 1989 ISBN 039921920X.
Lewis, Rob - HENRIETTA'S FIRST WINTER. (Farrar, 1990 ISBN 0374329516