Our Snowman

Deceptively simple, the strength of Goffstein's new book is that it not only captures the delight of a first winter's snowfall, but it also explores the joy life offers when it is lovingly shared. A little girl shows her younger brother how to build a snowman, rolling the snowballs ""in fresh places'' on the white lawn. (``Year after year, these things work!'') When the girl cries to see the snowman standing ``alone in the darkening night,'' her father helps her build another who wears leaves ``like a pretty gown.'' The little girl is pleased that her brother understands: ``Now they have company,'' he says. As in her last book (The School of Names, the illustrations are not Goffstein's familiar line drawings but well-designed pastels, reminiscent of the chalk-on-blackboard drawings of children, who also know the magic of a first snow. (All ages)