Another winner from Joyce Sidman, this lovely book contains 12 poems inspired by the cold portion of the year. In addition to couplets such as "Snake's Lullaby" that describe how snakes prepare for the drop in temperatures, she includes a pantoum ("Under Ice") describing the activities of beavers during the winter, and a "Triolet for Skunk Cabbage." The poems are filled with marvelous imagery with each poem accompanied by informational text telling more about its subject. Those marvelous illustrations were created with the use of linoleum prints, hand-colored, digitally scanned, composed and then layered. The end result is visually pleasing, enhancing the poems perfectly. One of my favorite poems is "Dream of the Tundra Swans" with these memorable lines: "Dusk fell / and the cold came creeping, / came prickling into our hearts" (p. 6) and "When we work, we were covered with snow. / We rose in a billow of white" (p. 6). AHHHH! I've seen these birds setting forth into the sky, but I never have used such perfect words to describe their ascent.