Flurry, Float, and Fly! The Story of a Snowstorm

Purdie Salas’s incantatory rhyming verse conveys meteorological basics in a science-led account of a snowstorm’s emergence. After a “polar freeze” from the north mingles with a “humid breeze” from the south, couplets marvel at the consequences: “Cold and damp/ work/ hand in hand/ to grow a/ speck/ to something/ GRAND!” Ensuing lines draw on the titular refrain to articulate the wondrous qualities of overnight flurries that develop when “stars and columns fill the sky/ with dreams to/ flurry, float, and fly.” Employing watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and digital techniques, Fedele washes soothing landscapes in luminous layers of blue as humans, portrayed with various skin tones, and critters anticipate and then rejoice in the weather via “snowballs, snow forts, sledding hills.” The creators successfully balance art, information, and poetry for a result that captures the fleeting magic of snowflake-filled skies as well as their power to generate community activity. Back matter discusses a snowfall’s ingredients and more. Ages 4–7. (Nov.)