I picked this book from Netgalley because of the illustrator, Qin
Leng. Her soft ink and watercolour illustrations are the highlight of this
book for me. Honestly, they are gorgeous, and impart a vintage feel reminiscent
of the original Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows books. While I was
in the middle of admiring Leng's images, I became enchanted with the story
itself.
Families of animals in a forest
are having an ordinary day, when word comes that a blizzard is on its
way.
They get to work preparing for
it and then settle snugly into their little homes.
When two bears, strangers to
them, arrive in the forest, they wonder who they are are and why they are
here.
When the strangers go from home
to home searching for shelter, the animal families lie and send them on their
way. Only a young fox offers them a lantern to guide them.
As the snow piles up, the
strangers fashion their own shelter. When the heavy snow collapses the fox den,
they end up searching for shelter themselves and find it with the strangers in their snow den.
This book will be an important
contribution to collections about immigration and refugees, but is significant on
its own for what it teaches readers about generosity and kindness.
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