Snowflake Bentley

The other day I was reading on this blog and came across a children's reading list she had put together. Books about winter. The library around here is so great because all the branches are linked together and what one branch doesn't have, another often will. If that doesn't work, I search Melcat which is a search engine for the participating libraries across the whole state of Michigan. If I'm still coming up empty, I usually give up. We have too many books and movies in our house to buy more.

At any rate, I requested several of the books on the list and held out a little on a book called "Snowflake Bentley." I pictured it as a cutsie little book about a snowflake and his "adventures." Turns out I was wrong. It's about a boy who loved snow and his attempts to draw and photograph snow many, many years ago. And it's a Caldecott. It was very informative and intriguing. Sariah listened to the whole book and kept asking me in amazement how we could read so many pages.

Another reason that I liked the book is that in December when Joseph was making tags for his boxes of toffee, he decided he'd like a picture of a snowflake on them. He went to a website that had pictures of real snowflakes and I spent a while looking at them then. So amazing. Check out this website. The website also has a lot of information that might be interesting including the age-old question, Are any two snowflakes alike? These photos are in color. You have to see them!

Turns out, my Google search last night also pulled up a website featuring the snowflakes of Bentley himself.

http://snowflakebentley.com/snowflakes.htm