by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 05, 2010

"One wintry day I made a snowman, very round and tall.
The next day when I saw him, he was not the same at all!

His hat had slipped, his arms drooped down, he really looked a fright -
It made me start to wonder: What DO snowmen do at night?"

Caralyn Buehner wrote a clever rhyming text for a story that was magically illustrated by her husband Mark. There's luminous cartoon skies behind a boy rolling three large snowballs. The snowman he builds looks very ordinary, but the text suggests something exciting is about to happen. And as the next page begins, the boy begins imaging what all those snowmen do when nobody's looking!

They wave happily to each other as they slide down a snow-covered street, in the bright glow of street lamps and snow-covered tree branches. There's jaunty coal smiles and animated tree-branch arms, which seem even more appropriate when they reach the snowman party. They sip "ice-cold cocoa" in the park, and then run exciting snowman races. And suddenly the coal smiles have cracked into open-mouthed grins, and the coal has become smiling-snowman teeth!

My favorite illustration shows the snowmen skating on the ice. Because that's impossible - but there they are, smoothly gliding and smiling across an orange-purple lake surface. Because it's night, the drawings are all a cool dark, which adds an extra mystery to the book. And whatever light there is in the evening seems to take on an enchanted glow.

Soon the full moon is looking down, as the snowmen play baseball (with a stack of snowballs). There's a secret second joke in the picture, since the moon has a coal smile, and it even seems to have a carrot nose. And the next illustration is even more lively, as the scene turns into snowman pandemonium. "No one knows just how it started, but soon it's quite a sight - with snowmen throwing snowballs in the world's best snowball fight!"

Surprisingly, the couple got the idea for this book from a funny real-life incident. "One wintry morning, the Buehners opened their front door to find that the snowman they had created the night before had traveled several yards, and was now facing the front door." The book's jacket even includes a photograph of their traveling snowman, along with the Buehner's startled reaction.

"It made them start to wonder…"

And if you liked this book, don't forget there's a sequel. Caralyn and Mark Buehner would also like to tell you about "Snowmen at Christmas!"

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