The Snowman's Path - Hardcover

Ral Coln is the award-winning illustrator of many books for children. He has won the Golden Kite Award, the New York Times Best-Illustrated Award, Silver and Gold Medals from the Society of Illustrators, and ALA Notable honors, as well as critical acclaim from reviewers. He lives in New City, New York.

K Up-A boy's story of a snowman come to life occurs in a surreal nighttime world with no other inhabitants save an unobtrusive cat. Nathan fantasizes about footprints he had made in wet cement, and thinks that maybe they were left by a snowman. Later that night, he does spot a snowman and follows him. Though the snowman laughs and chuckles, he is described as a melancholy figure. Built of the traditional three snowballs, he is handsomely depicted with snowy arms and hands and legs, and feet shod in rubber boots. A hat, scarf, umbrella, and carpetbag complete his outfit as he travels north to stay cold. Col-n's characteristic use of thick layers of paint, scratched and etched for a textured, printlike effect, often results in softened forms. Here, however, the snowman seems hard-edged-more plaster than fluffy snow. The ocher color scheme gives an otherworldly glow to the nightly chats in which Nathan and his new friend share food and drink and swap life stories. Nathan's response to the snowman's sadness is to build him a snow woman, who soon becomes the object of his affections. Having made the match, Nathan loses his snowy companion as the new couple departs to move ahead of the coming spring. The boy then becomes the melancholy figure. The snowy romance is a sweet courtship, but the detached tone of Nathan's narrative suggests nocturnal longings most likely to appeal to adolescent and adult sentiments.
Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
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