they gather in a circle while they wait for all the others, sipping cups of ice-cold cocoa, made by snowman mothers.

Snowmen at Night offered a great alternative explanation to the changes we see in snowmen over the days of winter. A kid builds a snowman only to find him crooked and slumping the next day. To explain this, he imagines a night in the life of a snowman. As it turns out, snowmen have it good! Sledding, baseball, ice skating, snowball fights...the works. They're also a laid-back bunch, giggling and bumping into one another, and making sure everyone gets a turn in the games. Seriously, I almost missed winter and snow. I think Caralyn Beuhner's writing and Mark Beuhner's killer illustrations (vibrant blues, and vivid colors in general) give an explanation kids can vibe with. I'd much rather hear "your snowman ran himself ragged in the snowman races last night" than "your snowman's dying and eventually he'll just a be a pile of ice or even worse...water". The only thing I found slightly creepy was that the snowmen play baseball with snowballs which leads to a snowball fight...it just seemed wrong. Like, I had this brief mental image of humans throwing limbs and vital organs at one another. Call me crazy but I think about these things. Other than that, though, Snowmen at Night, with its simple, rhyming lines, is a breezy read.