Charlie Crow in the Snow by Paula Metcalf and illustrated by CallyJohnson-Isaacs

Metcalf's story Charlie Crow in the Snow is a lovely picture book story about friendship and the changing seasons.

Charlie Crow loves him home in the tree and enjoys visits from his friends Bear and Swallow. However, things begin to change, much to Charlie's surprise. Charlie Crow hasn't seen snow before and when he does see it for the first time he panics and goes to find his friends. He can't find bear and Swallow. However, he does bump into Squirrel who is just as confused and between them they set off to find Bear and Swallow who will surely know the answer to what is going on.

The story beautifully introduces children to the changing seasons from Autumn through to winter. Children will learn about how leaves fall from trees, water turns to ice, snow, hibernation and migration.

It would make a lovely read-aloud story for Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. It would also make a lovely guided read for children who have mastered phase 5 phonics. In terms of comprehension there are ample opportunities to teach wither through shared or guided reading each of the 5 domains that are identified in the Key Stage 1 Reading Tests, in particular 1a vocabulary, 1b identify key aspects of fiction and 1d make inferences from the text.

The dialogue within the story uses a wide variety of synonyms for said such as squawked, whimpered, cried, shrieked and exclaimed allowing teachers the opportunity to develop children's vocabulary, consider characterisation and further children's grammatical knowledge in context.

The illustrations are bright and clearly depict the different colours and tones associated with the different seasons. Also, the expressions on the characters faces are an absolute delight. The positioning of the eyebrows on each of the characters emphasise the emotions felt by each of the characters at any one particular time and would therefore support the teaching of comprehension  and emotional intelligence. My favourite, I think is the page where Charlie Crow and Squirrel attempt to hibernate with Bear.

Publisher: Macmillan 

Publication Date: 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4472-8155-9

Betty and the Yeti by Ella Burfoot

Ella Burfoot's story of a little girl called Betty who collects various items of clothing as she ventures across the frozen, snowy landscape, is a charming tale of friendship. Betty is an inquisitive character who befriends a Yeti and helps him to stay warm and make new friends.

The story would make a good stimulus for a science topic 'Keeping Warm'. As Betty ventures through the snow with her sled full of clothes, she meets various animals and inquires if the clothes she has found belong to them. Each of the animals tells Betty that they don't and explains why. Betty then meets the Yeti, who does need clothes to keep him warm.

It is also a story about friendship. The other animals are frightened of the Yeti, despite him being small, because of his appearance. However, this changes when they see Betty walking along holding the Yeti's paw.

The story is told in rhyme and as such provides numerous examples of alternative spellings for long vowel phonemes. Children could collect the examples, sort and classify them in preparation for a spelling investigation.

The language used is also rich with noun phrases. As Betty collects the various items of clothing they aren't simply listed. They are described using noun phrases which enable the reader the visualize each item: 'a little red sled', 'a jingly jangly fluffy hat', 'a woolly scarf', 'one enormous smelly coat'. It would be interesting to read the story to the children without them being able to 'see' the illustrations and get them to draw what they imagine the items (and the Yeti) to look like before introducing them to Ella Burfoot's own illustrations. This could then lead onto children composing their own noun phrases for items they might include in a story of their own.

The text is also a good model for investigating direct speech as in the short text there is a great deal of conversation between the various characters. This could be done through re-presenting the text as a comic strip or a play script.

Overall, a lovely humorous, little story which is a rich resource for the English curriculum and provides a stimulus for topic work in other curriculum subjects.

Published: 2010
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 978-1-4472-8154-2