ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
PICTURE BOOKS
Ferry, Beth

The Snowball Fight

48 pp. | HarperCollins/Clarion | November, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9780063327078 $19.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. “Flurries hurry, floating down, / dusting, coating frozen ground. // Drifting flakes fall faster, faster, / turning things to alabaster.” These impressionistic opening lines ­accompany stark illustrations of two facing houses and the ground between them, covered in white and outlined in pencil against the watercolor blue sky. When the snow finally stops, a child emerges from each house: “YAY! HOORAY! It’s a Snow Day!” From here Ferry’s poetic text turns into a lively, rhyming instruction manual for proper fort building before an epic snowball fight ensues. (“‘Ha! Ya missed me…by A LOT!’ // It looks so easy. // But it’s not.”) In this exuberant picture book by frequent collaborators (recently The Umbrella, rev. 5/23), Lichtenheld’s spirited illustrations play effortlessly off Ferry’s verses. With the simple setting firmly established, the art focuses our attention on the characters’ expressions and activities, occasionally zooming in for dramatic effect, e.g., on the kids’ wary fac-es when one of the forts must be abandoned due to wind-blown snow. But such obstacles are no match for inspiration, which leads to sledding and then snow angels before the two content compatriots head inside for cookies and hot cocoa with marshmallows, the latter of which reminds them of one more snow creation to go back out and build before the day is finished. “YAY! HOORAY! / What a Snow Day!” indeed.
Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

RELATED 

PICTURE BOOKS

Born Ready
by Patterson, Jodie
PICTURE BOOKS

The House of Grass and Sky
by Ray, Mary Lyn
PICTURE BOOKS

The Dog's Gardener
by Storms, Patricia
PICTURE BOOKS

And I Paint It
by Kephart, Beth
PICTURE BOOKS

Poem in My Pocket
by Tougas, Chris
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?