Snowball

Readers may want to have a pair of mittens at the ready while turning the pages of this spare, energetic picture book about a preschool girl's gleeful celebration of the arrival of winter weather. With great anticipation and not a little childlike impatience, the unnamed narrator waits all week for a forecast of snow to come true. When the white stuff finally falls, her world transforms into a frosty, fun-filled wonderland, where she builds the ""perfect snowball."" Crews (One Hot Summer Day) tells a sparkling visual story with photographic collages that capture the spontaneous moods of her enthusiastic subject. Her unique method consistently keeps her protagonist the center of attention; she frequently places sharp silhouettes of the preschooler onto backgrounds of an urban neighborhood or her school playground. Shots of brightly bundled children romping in the fluffy snowflakes will brighten even the dreariest of days. Ages 3-up. (Oct.)