12. Let it Snow!

Snowflake: A Pop-Up Book, written by Jennifer Preston Chushcoff, illustrated and engineered by Yevgeniya Yeretskaya, Jumping Jack, $24.99, ages 3 and up, 14 pages. Snowflakes spin and do loopy-de-loops on the page of this magical tribute to one of nature's most dazzling creations and the photographer who first captured them on film. Wilson A. Bentley, also known as "The Snowflake Man," discovered that no two snowflakes look exactly the same, and just as in real life, every snowflake in the book looks unique -- and as sparkly and perfect as you'd hope for. Dusted with glitter, the snowflakes fall against backgrounds of cool-weather blues and grays, as Chushcoff describes their playful descent. "They look like lace and fine cut jewels falling. They tickle your tongue and land on the snowman's nose," she writes, as images of red mittens and a snowman appear off to the side. Then, just as quickly, the air can warm and the tiny masses of ice crystals disappear. "Watch the miracle before they melt," she urges from the page.

On one page, cutouts of snowflakes open against turning discs printed with their likeness, creating a sensation that snowflakes are tumbling head-over-heels from the clouds. On another page, a snowflake as ornamental as a doily opens in the book's fold and blossoms like a peony, as other flakes, some as small as sequins, fall about white trunks of trees. Most of the book's seven displays include smaller fold-outs with their own moving snowflakes, where Chushcoff elaborates on Bentley's legacy and the challenge of capturing such a fleeting little design. Any child who loves to snip and fold paper into cutout snowflakes will be hopping up and down to see every pop-up unfold.