title: Wonderful Winter: All Kinds of Winter Facts and Fun
author:  Bruce Goldstone 
description: K-Gr 3An exploration of the wonders of winter. Big, bold text starts off the reading adventure, with smaller, more detailed text following up. The title begins with the theme of waiting ("We wait for the days to get longer") but soon switches focus to the senses ("How does winter feel?"). There is a lot of read-aloud potential in this book, but the sudden shifts in topics will likely make it a difficult experience. For instance, a spread on winter sounds features winter-related onomatopoeia in large, colorful type ("crunch," "drip," "brrrrrrr") that makes this offering great for sharing with an audience, but the very next spread contains a lengthy discussion of how snow forms. The photos are bright and clear and generally represent the text well, but the layout is very busy. VERDICT A browsable selection on the winter season. Goldstone's Awesome Autumn is similarly designed, albeit better organized.Rachel Reinwald, Lake Villa District Library, IL
zlib_text: David Gemmell
  
  
  Winter Warriors
  
  
  ## Chapter One
  
  
  The night sky over the mountains was clear and bright, the stars like diamonds
  on sable. It was a late winter night of cold and terrible beauty, the snow
  hanging heavy on the branches of pine and cedar. There was no colour here, no
  sense of life. The land lay silent, save for the occasional crack of an
  overladen branch, or the soft, whispering sound of fallen snow being drifted
  by the harsh north wind.
  
  
  A hooded rider on a dark horse emerged from the tree line, his mount plodding
  slowly through the thick snow. Bent low over the saddle he rode on, his head
  bowed against the wind, his gloved hands holding his snow-crowned grey cloak
  tightly at the neck. As he came into the open he seemed to become a focus for
  the angry wind, which howled around him. Undaunted he urged the horse on. A
  white owl launched itself from a high treetop and glided down past the horse
  and rider. A thin rat scurried across the moonlit snow, swerving as the owl’s
  