Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story

The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story

Neil Waldman
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 5 to 8
Millbrook, 2003   ISBN: 978-0761323471

This is the story of a snowflake that drifts out of the sky one cold January day. In February the snowflake is carried up by a gust of wind and deposited on a pond where it freezes. In March the pond thaws and the snowflake turns into a droplet of water. The droplet now begins an incredible journey.

Through an underground stream it goes with millions of other little water droplets. Then it bubbles up into an “icy spring” and into a stream. The stream grows into a river flowing past villages and cities. In May the droplet is sucked into a pipe and it is used to water a field of cabbages. From this field the droplet evaporates up into the air to become a cloud. Where will the droplet go next?

In this beautifully illustrated picture book children will discover that the water that they drink, wash in, and play in is part of an extraordinary cycle which repeats itself over and over. From a cloud to the land, from the mountains to the ocean children will experience water is all its forms and they will come to realize that the water that it so much a part of their life is recycled again and again, year after year.