Prize in the Snow

In trembling anticpation, a boy tramps through snowy woods and February cold. He carries a wooden box, a carrot and a long stick from which dangles a string. He plans to become a hunter like the older boys. But when he snares a starving rabbit, unexpected reactions crowd out the hunter's instinct. This picture book speaks in the prosaic voice of the newspaper column that gave rise to it (Easterling writes a daily column for the Huntsville Times in Alabama). However, the honest, believable details vanquish sentimentality. Owens's (A Caribou Alphabet; Counting Cranes) watercolor paintings masterfully articulate the forms and spirit of the wintry setting rather than the facial landscape of the boy's emotions. But her illustrations-framed by pines laden with heavy snow and weightless chickadees-gain a subtle intimacy through perspectives held in the embrace of nature. Ages 3-8. (Oct.)