By Masha D'yans
Scholastic, 2011
$17.99, ages 4-7, 20 pages.
A little girl wakes up with a gleam in her eye and a step as springy as her ringlets of hair, in this adorable novelty book.
Greeting card illustrator Dyans makes a joyful splash into books with this story of a girl embarking on a day of play in the snow.
All it takes is one look at the cover and readers know they're in for a lovely time. There, the girl, Ruby, greets them in red-and-white striped stockings with open arms, as if to say, "Come with me!"
As the story begins, Ruby has just woken up and raced to her bedroom window to see that it's snowing.
Reflecting the rainbow colors of her room, her mood is "razzle-dazzle" and in no time at all (by the next page), she's out in the sparkly snow with her scruffy dog Rocket, jumping through the snow to catch up.
As flower-like crystals of snow collect on tree branches, Ruby imagines she's in a fairy tale -- she's a "gleaming-beaming snow queen" and Rocket is her knight.
