Snowcial

Hey friends, is it cold where you are today? Staying warm?

Well, as you can see, I've got a pretty incredible book about snow and ice to show you all today ~ 'Snowcial' by Chelsea Prince, with amazing photos by Keoki Flagg and Robert Pittman. I was given this book to review and I have to tell you, Julia and I both had a collective jaw drop when it arrived in the mail.

 From a photography standpoint, this will blow you away, no joke. Just flat out amazing, stunning, and vivid captures of a real life trip that two kids took to the Antarctic Peninsula with their parents. You should see their boat encased in snow and ice, it was incredible! The kids then shared their experiences via Skype live chats with children back home in the U.S.

 The term 'Snowcial' is a word made up by Anna, the young girl in the story ~ supposed to be a mix of the words 'snowy' and 'special'.

I can't imagine seeing in person what these kids saw! The glaciers, the Gentoo penguins (one of them gets an owie and has some blood on his chest, Julia was worried until we read that it was just little scrape. oh good!), seals, orcas, and the most amazing birds.

 What's really cool is that part of the format of the story involves Q&A from the kids back home and the kids on the trip. So while we're reading about this incredible trip of a lifetime, we also got a ton of info about wildlife in this part of the world, and the geography of this amazing, amazing place.

I've never seen a book like this before. All I can say is....people ~ this is how you make learning fun and cool. Julia loved that real kids went on this journey, and she just could not get enough of the penguins. I can't adequately express how divine the photography is, it's like mega coffee table art right here in a children's book! And Prince's text is really fun and accessible. She takes what could have been a dry nature-book recitation of facts about wildlife, and breathes real kid lingo and vibrance into the material.

It's a really special and snowy book. No....it's SNOWCIAL. Ha ha ha, get it? So sorry. Very very cool, and dense with story, facts and art -- the book is jam packed with gold on every one of its 80 pages! Great for kids ages 7-11 and totally gift worthy.

So thrilled I got to review this book! It's really unique and I can't rave about it enough. Totally incredible first hand glimpse by kids into a world most people will never be able to see in person.