An interesting package arrived in the mail earlier this week - it contained a couple of advance copies of The Story of Snow, Japanese edition. Here's a scan of the cover - the book is a bit smaller (physical dimensions) than the US edition. How cool!

- Mark

The Story of Snow has been awarded a 2009 Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books! You can see all the details here:

http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/blue09.html

- Mark

The Story of Snow is featured in today's USA Today's  Book Roundup - in an article entitled Weather the Winter with a Picture Book. The book is described as "an artistic science lesson about the rise and fall of snow crystals."  The article also features Carl's Snowy Afternoon by Alexandra Day, Life in the Boreal Forest by Brenda Z. Guiberson, illustrated by Gennady Spirin and Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson by Sharon Robinson, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

You can read the on-line version here: 

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2010-01-21-roundup21_ST_N.htm

...

Last night I spoke at the Grand Rapids Camera Club and provided a demo of how to take snow crystal photo. The turnout was great with well over 100 people in the room, and it was a lot of fun.

The presentation is a bit of a stroll down memory lane and the evolution of the process I use to take snow crystal photos. Of course, it starts at the beginning, with the very first snow crystal shots I managed to make. Here they are - from the winter of 1998/99. It was my second or third try at it, only very small crystals were falling, and on a wing and prayer I snapped a few shots with a high magnification setup, manual flash, and ancient Spotmatic film camera. I was really happy with the results, but it was the end of the season and there were no more opportunities that winter.

It took me a few more years till I was able to duplicate these results, but these photos gave me the inspiration to keep on trying...

Here are three reviews of The Story of Snow that have appeared in the blogosphere over the last month (plus a few days): 

Abby (the) Librarian describes the books as "beautiful and interesting" and discuses pairing it with Snowflake Bentley when teaching about snow and winter. You can find the full review here:

 http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-review-story-of-snow.html

 The Miss Rumphius Effect - a blog aimed at teachers and educators - reviewed Snowflake Bentley and The Story of Snow both in a common post. The Story of Snow was described as "visually appealing and highly informative." You can see the whole review here:

http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com/2009/12/nonfiction-monday-let-it-snow.html

 A Patchwork Of Books comments that the book "takes every day questions about snow and answers them with a simple, yet informative method." You can read the whole review here:

 http://apatchworkofbooks.blogspot.com/2009/11/non-fiction-monday-time-for-snow.html

 There may be more out there but those are ones I ran into. Thanks to everyone who reads the book and takes the time to offer feedback!

 - Mark

Yesterday, a new review of The Story of Snow appeared on  Bookends, a Booklist blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

 “They take a rather technical subject and make it “crystal” clear for really young readers and still retain a tangible sense of wonder. This is a beautiful book and a fascinating book.”

 You can read the whole thing here:

http://bookends.booklistonline.com/2009/12/28/the-story-of-snow-by-mark-cassino-with-jon-nelson/

Today’s Winston-Salem Journal has a nice article about books to read on snowy days – and The Story of Snow is one of them.  You can read the whole review, Snow Days Call For Snowy Pages here –

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/dec/27/snowy-days-call-for-snowy-pages/

Last week the Chicago Tribune‘s print edition featured a review of winter books for young readers by Mary Harris Russell. Christmas, Snowflake Stories Are Delightful featured only 3 books – The Christmas Magic by Lauren Thompson, What’s Coming for Christmas by Kate Banks and  The Story of Snow by yours truly.

Sorry – I don’t have a weblink for this review.

It’s snowing like mad here in Michigan. The Christmas storm of 2009 is moving along to the east, and we are falling into the northerly winds. For now it is just a dusty busted up snow with no good snow crystals so far. Once the storm passes and the gentle lake effect snow kicks in, things may get better…at least from the perspective of someone looking for snow crystals to photograph!  Best wishes to everyone who is travelling through this storm during this holiday season.

In the meantime – here’s a shot from last March:

 - Mark

Last week’s storm brought several inches of hard driving, wet snow to Kalamazoo. But after the blizzard passed temperatures grew more mild, and soon patches of grass began to emerge from the melting snow cover.

A slight dusting of lake effect snow a couple of days ago is all we’ve seen of the white stuff since then. I spent a few disappointing hours out in the light snow, catching only highly irregular crystals and the broken arms of dendrites.

Here’s the one and only whole crystal I managed to photograph – it’s a start!

Great news!

The Story of Snow has been named an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12 by the National Science Teacher's Association and Children's Book Council!