Today, for a bit of a change, I’m participating in a blog tour for A Flower in the Snow by Tracey Corderoy and illustrated by Sophie Allsopp, which 
is a fiction picture book that is as visually refreshing and soft as newly fallen snow.
In the story Luna and Bear are great friends who do everything together, even share colds. One day Bear find a special yellow flower in the snow and he gives it to Luna. When the petals fall off and the flower wilts, Luna is sad that her special flower is gone. Bear sails away. He is determined to find her another flower. In the meanwhile, Luna discovers Bear is gone and misses him. Will he find a flower? Will he ever return?
The theme of loss, first of the flower and then of her friend, are events that children can relate to. Author Tracey Corderoy worked with children who were returning to school after long illnesses, and it is likely this audience she had in mind when she wrote the story. I’m sure the children wonder whether they will ever see their friends again and how will their relationship might be different if they do. This book gives them hope that things can get better. The book would also be appropriate to comfort a child who is missing a parent who is away.
Sophie Alsopp‘s delicate watercolors are a lovely match to this sweet story. Alsopp based her illustrations of the yellow flower on a plant that can actually flower in the snow, the winter aconite, Eranthis cilicica.
A Flower in the Snow is a gentle and unexpected delight, rather like finding, well, a flower in the snow.
Reading level: Ages 4 and up
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (December 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1402277407
ISBN-13: 978-1402277405
Arc was provided electronically via NetGalley.