In winter, Granny Sylvie takes her grandson back out to a secret glade they had visited in the summer. With trees now bare and animals scarce, the boy laments, “Nothing’s alive in winter!” Then Granny Sylvie explains hibernation amongst trees, mammals, fish and even insects. A more detailed description of hibernation follows the enchanting story, including tips on how to aid animals in winter.

Young and old alike will be taken with the lovely prose from picture book author Sean Taylor and ecologist Alex Morss and the charming illustrations by Cinyee Chiu. Highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

A great teaching tool! This book provides a look at winter months and what many animals due during that time.
Not only does the story share about a "winter sleep" but the end of the story offers a deeper look at what hibernation means.
We then get details on a variety of animals and their winter habits.
This book would be a great resource to help teach and entertain younger kids during winter months!

I really loved reading this story. The illustrations and story were so peaceful and calming that I really took my time as I read it, drawing in all the beautiful touches the illustrations put in to enhance the story.

Thoughts:
It is summer and a little boy is visiting his grandmother’s house. A house that has a beautiful, lush flower garden and is in walking distance to a pond, small hills, and a little forest. The birds are singing and the butterflies and bees are flying by. They sit down in the middle of this lush forest and are at peace looking at all the nature.

The boy comes back in winter and asks to go see the secret place they had visited in the summer, but when they do he notices that nothing is the same. Everything is gone and dead. That’s when the grandmother explains to him what different creatures do during the winter. She shows him locations of where they might be and how they protect themselves during this time.

First, I loved the illustrations. They were so soothing to look at – varied colors in the summer, followed by shades of white, brown, and grey for winter. I need to learn more about art so that I can say definitively that they are watercolor pictures with pencils, but unfortunately I don’t know enough so I can only guess. But, I loved how the story provided more than just what a typical picture book might include: bears and ground squirrels. But in Winter Sleep, we learn about dormice, fish, insects (earwigs, moths), frogs, bats, and more. At the end of the story is more information about hibernations. It provides a full page of what it means, but then the following pages shows even more animals and insects and how they hibernate – such as woodchucks, hedgehogs, gila monsters, leopard geckos, sand lizards, Everest jumping spiders (this one was rather interesting to read about), earthworms, and many more. The last section of the book provides a page identifying ways you can help – even at your home.
Recommended to all.

Rating: 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – words and pictures for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

A great children’s book that introduces what various animals and creatures do to get through Winter.
The books works for younger children and older siblings more able to learn a more science based approach.
The concept of Winter Sleeps expands in this way into hibernation in its varied forms.
I loved the concept here to entertain and educate. To contrast the vibrancy of a forest scene from Summer to Winter.
On a serious level, beyond the simple story that will appeal to all ages, is the science with a mini bio on a number of creatures and mini beasts that hunker down when it gets cold.
I also liked the the follow up details for websites with more information and reference points.
It was also refreshing to see hints on how we can help out and assist nature in creating the best habituate and environment for these special creatures. So like the best books it is a joy to read and gives an impetus to get out and explore our world.
The story relies on the premise that one generation passes on knowledge to the next generation and the characters envisaged here carry the story well and prompt each of us to take up this baton.

I loved this book- from first seeing the cover to poring over it all page by page to the end.

It is stunning, full of lovely illustrations and an almost poetic description of hibernation.
It explains how animals spend the end of summer through the autumn preparing for their long sleep and it shows a huge variety of mammals, fish and insects sleeping through the winter. From "the summer magic of the night" to the "cosy magic of the dark night outside". Poetic!

A brilliant book to celebrate the magic and science of hibernation. "Can you imagine going to bed in winter and not getting up until spring?"- I bet sometimes we can but our bodies are not designed to do so. There are some amazing facts at the end that surprised me- like the woodchuck- only taking one breath every five minutes during hibernation. Amazing.

Although this would be ideal for classes studying hibernation, I feel that this is one that could be read and enjoyed by all, regardless of the season.

It is a beautiful book!