Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Blizzard Wizard
Illustrator: John Aardema
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Down East Books, 2010 ISBN: 978-0892727896
It is wintertime, and the kids are feeling very glum because there is no snow. How can they make a snowman if there isn’t any snow? The Blizzard Wizard wishes he could help out. Making blizzards is what he is supposed to do, but he has lost his snow spell. He knows that a winter without snow is “like a birthday cake without candles,” so he tries the snow spell anyway.
Unfortunately, the Blizzard Wizard’s spell is significantly wrong. White fluffy things do indeed fall from the sky, but they are not snowflakes, they are sheep. Yes indeed, white and fluffy sheep with black faces.
Later in the winter, the children ask the Blizzard Wizard once again if snow might be in offing. The wizard still has not found his spell, but since a winter without snow is like “riding a bike without wheels,” he gives it another try. With disastrous, if somewhat amusing results.
Children are sure to enjoy this amusing picture book with its magical mishaps and its comical outcomes. In addition to the main story, the author also provides her readers with two pages at the back of the book that are packed with blizzard facts.
