THE SMALLEST SNOWFLAKE
by Bernadette Watts & illustrated by Bernadette Watts
High above the geese, the snowflakes discuss where they will go. One settles in a village of red-tiled roofs, another on a mountaintop, still another on the Kremlin. But the smallest snowflake drifts with the wind over Europe and the Arctic lands, finally lighting on the window box of a little Welsh cottage (the artist’s former residence, readers learn from the jacket flap). There she waits out the winter until spring comes, when she melts with joy at the sight of a snowdrop. Watts’s delicate watercolors make the most of the snowflake’s journey, painting the landscapes both grandiose and homey with equal affection. If the concept is more than a bit twee, the geography inconsistent and the ending downright sappy, the pictures are imbued with their own quiet magic. (Picture book. 4-7)