Midnight Snowman: Caroline Feller Bauer

""It rains a lot in our town. It never snows,'' says the narrator of this story. But one winter evening it does snow, and she and her friend Elizabeth go out, despite the dark, and roll a snowball to make a snowman. Soon the snowball is bigger than both of them, and the whole neighborhood turns out to help, argue and build ``the biggest snowman in the world,'' which stands in the city park by midnight. ``Well, maybe he wasn't actually a snow man . . . maybe more of a snow thing.'' By spring, even cherry blossoms remind the young girl of snow and her nighttime escapade. Stock's soft pastel illustrations fully realize the simple images of the text, depicting wondrous, fist-sized snowflakes, the Eskimo igloo created from bedsheets and the snowy hills and valley that the dreamy narrator shapes from cream of wheat. Ages 4-7. (October)