Stranger in the Woods may sound like a spooky story, but it isn’t at all. It’s a charming winter picture book told with a few words and beautiful color photos. The animals who live in the woods react in alarm to the appearance of a “stranger”. The stranger is actually a snowman, but not just any snowman, it’s a snowman built to be a special treat for the animals.
The photographs are beautiful, several show a family of dear through wintry snow covered trees. There are close-ups of a blue jay, an owl, a red cardinal, and mourning doves. The photos show the icy white world of winter. The animals try to figure out where the stranger came from. They try to figure out who should get nearer to figure this stranger out. The rabbit is scared, but the chickadee, mouse and fawn all want to go. A buck and a cardinal argue over which of them should go first. Each of the animals has their own pattern of talking. The mouse stutters, the chickadee says “howdy-dee-dee” and “already-dee-dee”.
The animals approach the snowman. He’s wearing gloves and a bright red hat. The chickadee perches on the bright orange carrot nose and declares that the stranger is friendly. There are nuts and seeds on his hat. The buck’s nose leads him to corn buried beneath the snow. The young doe eats the carrot nose.
The fawn finds a curious object in the snow that the reader recognizes as a child’s mitten. The fawn wonders if there is more than one stranger in the woods. After the animals leave we see two children peeking out of the evergreens. They put down more seeds and corn and a fresh carrot nose. They plan to feed the animals until the snowman has melted away.
At the back of the book is a recipe for making your own snowman animal feeder. It’s a great idea, and a sweet book to share in the wintertime.
Also See:
An Early American Christmas – Tomie dePaola
Christmas in the Big Woods – Laura Ignalls Wilder
Christmas Tree Memories – Aliki