Review Detail

A Cozy Winter's Day

Kids Fiction 58

Curl up under an afghan to read this one!

November 11, 2024

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

A cold, snowy snap in Acorn Village's weather causes the animal inhabitants to settle in for a cozy day. Dad Rabbit shops for ingredients for a vegetable stew, and comes home to Pop Rabbit making breakfast. The rabbit children get dressed in comfy clothes. The beavers stack up firewood, the hedgehogs gather yearn, and the intrepid Pearl takes her tiny baby squirrel for a first hike. Hilda the owl sleeps in, of course! A cozy winter's day is best spent in a warm nook, and is great for doing a variety of projects around the house. When the sun comes out, however, it's great to get outside for some fresh air, properly bundled up, of course. This makes it even nicer to get out of the cold, put on fresh, dry clothes, and gather by the fire as a neighborhood to eat stew and snuggle under blankets while visiting. To end the long day, nothing is cozier than settling into beds and dreaming wintery dreams. Hilda, the night owl, stays up to pen a story about a cozy village.

Good Points

This is a super cute book with lots of delightful illustrations rich in details. It reminded me a little of Richard Scarry's books, but that may be because The Bunny Book was one of my favorites, and the rabbit family figures largely in this story. It would be fantastic to be able to crawl into the pages and sit in the window nook under a blanket, reading and smelling all of the delicious cooking.

It was also fun to spend some time outside in the winter sun; the illustrations use light very well, and the after dinner and bedtime scenes seem especially atmospheric with the glow of the fire place inside and the night sky outside.

It's always tough to go from being outside in warm weather to preparing to be stuck insdide when the weather turns colder. Prepare young readers for this change in weather by celebrating A Cozy Winter's Day and other books about the fun that winter can hold, like Stumpfova's The First Snow, Melling's Ruffles and the Cold, Cold Snow, Gore's Danny's First Snow, or Fergus' Zander Stays. For extra bonus points, read the book while having a steaming cup of hot cocoa!