Princess Snowbelle and the Snow Games, Libby Frost
Genre: Children’s, Picture books
Published: November 1, 2018
Source: Public Library Copy
It’s time for the annual Snow Games, a contest between the two Kingdoms of Frostovia and Snowland. Princess Snowbelle is excited to be competing in the horse race against her best friend, Sparkleshine.
But when Princess Snowbelle gets caught on a tree during the race, it looks like she will lose. Sparkleshine shows her that friendship is more important than winning and that working together means that they can do great things.
Strengths
This is a beautifully illustrated picture book with a positive message for young children. The book focuses on friendship and helping others and teaches the message that it is not simply winning that is important in competition. The illustrations are truly gorgeous and adults will enjoy looking at the pictures with their young reader.
While this is still a picture book, the story is quite wordy. This means it is suitable for older toddlers and I think slightly older readers will enjoy reading this book out loud themselves to a teacher or parent.
Weaknesses
The story flows well until the very end of the book. I was surprised to find out that Princess Snowbelle has magic on the penultimate page of the story. It felt a little jarring that the magic hadn’t been mentioned in the rest of the story and I think some readers (especially those reading this book independently) might be confused by the sudden inclusion of magic.
Summary
This is a really beautiful picture book with a positive message. It would be a great book for children to read independently before moving onto early chapter books. I can see this being a hit with young girls, and I will consider adding it to my library collection.
Paper Worlds 