Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 2. This has nothing to do with Tchaikovsky's opera-ballet. This snow princess is a little girl in a big snowstorm waiting for her father to come home. In this oversize, concisely worded picture book, she stands atop a mound of snow, planning a royal welcome for her dad: I'll summon the lords and ladies to greet him ; then there will be a feast. The lovely paintings take a fantastical turn as the girl conjures up a courtly assembly of animals (and ballerinas!) who await the King. The child climbs a castle turret to look for her father across oceans and crisscrossing highways, and she rides a dragon seeking him. Then, back in the real world, headlights shine brightly as a car pulls up a snowy driveway. Daddy is home. Paradis imaginatively juxtaposes dragons against skyscrapers, for instance, and she captures the way children make magic and then turn it back to reality. This isn't an essential purchase, but it's a pretty one, especially for places where there's a lot of snow. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
As the setting sun casts a glow over a snowy suburban landscape, a girl in a pink snowsuit imagines that she is a princess preparing a lavish welcome for "the King"-aka Daddy. When it becomes apparent that Daddy is delayed, the girl pretends that she has bravely set out-first on a white stallion, then on a friendly fire-breathing dragon-to "show him the way!" More of a mood piece than a conventional story, the text launches a visual tour de force for Paradis (My Mommy). Very brief text on realistic spreads sets up the wordless and elaborately rendered flights of fancy that follow. In one such pairing, the girl grandly gestures to a snow-woman to follow her. "I'll summon the lords and ladies to greet him," she says (in a typically succinct passage). On the next spread, a long procession of anthropomorphized animals winds its way up to a golden castle that commands a snowy hilltop. The fantasy pages glow with icy light and feel wonderfully indulgent-Paradis clearly understands how girls daydream. The princess sports a tiara and a puffy, Glinda-style dress, while her animal subjects wear exquisite, individualized attire befitting the supporting cast of a fairy tale. Girls will lap this up like hot chocolate on a chilly day. Ages 2-8. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-A little girl gives free rein to her imagination as she waits for her father's return on a snowy day. While other neighborhood children engage in snowball fights, she imagines a grand castle filled with courtiers attending a feast in his honor. Later, she conjures up a ballet, and, still later, rides a white horse to meet him and has a fire-breathing dragon light his way home. The final scene shows their happy reunion, while Mom waits in the doorway. Text and paintings alternate between snowy reality and the young narrator's fantasy, and Paradis carefully links the two. The paintings add fanciful details and elevate this rather saccharine story. An aquamarine dragon snakes its way across a spread, and the colorfully dressed courtiers consist of white bears, elephants, and so on. Pleasant, but insubstantial.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Waiting for her father to arrive home on a snowy evening, a creative little girl amuses herself by pretending that her world is a fairy-tale winter wonderland complete with lords and ladies, horses, and dragons. Full-page snow-dominated illustrations provide action and infuse imagination into the dull and spare text that only vaguely hints at the fantastical world presented by the pictures. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A pretty and charming tale about snow, imagination and waiting for Daddy to come home. The spirited small narrator announces that she will prepare the castle for Daddy's coming home as she stands on a snow-covered hill, watching the road. On the next spread, readers see what she imagines, a snow castle with a path leading up the hill. "I'll summon the lords and ladies," she says, and next is a procession of snow animals, some quite exotic (snow giraffes and rhinos!), dressed in sumptuous garb. She plans a banquet in his honor inside the castle, where all the sweetmeats are made of snow and an ice dragon curves sinuously through the scene. When Daddy is late, she decides to ride out to meet him and show him the way, and readers see her sled transformed into that dragon as she flies above the city to see him home. The last image sees an ecstatic little girl in her father's arms, mom framed in their doorway and a pile of snow that looks very like a dragon's head curled around the house. The pictures capture all the opalescence of daylight and sunset on a snowy landscape, and Paradis shows a fine sense not only of line and pattern, but of the rhythms of the imagination. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
