A DAY FOR SKATING

A child and their parent enjoy a wintry skating outing while other skaters of varying degrees of ability and expertise surround them.

When the child takes a few skating steps, slides, turns, and promptly falls, the parent moves in to help and gently assure that falling is part of learning. A break taken in the snack-bar hut provides warmth, hot cocoa, and sandwiches. Later, another whirl around the pond together comes to a close with skates coming off and a ride home to a bath and cozy bedtime routine. The lively, brief rhyming text outlines the story’s sequence as it depicts the adjoining scenes. “Good friends gliding in a row. / Holding on and letting go. // Hockey sticks go clatter-clack. / Figure skaters stay on track. // Couples waltz. Children race / Happy people. Happy place.” Lovely drawings with simple details, done digitally and using watercolors and colored pencil, move the verse from a brisk, snow-covered day scene to the deeper purple hues of a winter dusk and a final, deeper blue when nighttime creatures enjoy the frozen pond. Though the protagonist and parent present white, multiracial representation is evident throughout the skating community.

This winter sports portrayal is a fine and attractive addition to the season’s preschool collection.