Winter Sleep

This was a sweet and charming book about animals who sleep their way through winter the better to creep out with the spring and renew their lives along with nature revitalizing itself each year. Visiting his grandmother, the unnamed boy in the story is taken to a secret glade in the nearby woods where he finds the charm and appeal of nature to be irresistible. But when he makes a return visit in winter, the entire glade has changed, and far from being a place of buzzing insects, flourishing flowers, and chirping birds, it lies asleep under a blanket of snow, soundless, lifeless.

Or so it appears.

Grandmother Sylvie points out though that even in the midst of the quietude, they're surrounded by sleeping nature: the bears and the bees, the dormouse, the bat, the beetles, the earwigs, the moths, the fish and the frogs, all hidden and awaiting the return of long days and strong sunshine to wake up and get moving. There's a section at the back of the book about how and why animals hibernate, and the illustrations by Cinyee Chiu are charming and well-wrought. I commend this as a worthy read.

A neat book to show how the seasons change and how animals that are awake and out during the summer hibernate during the winter. There is also a bunch of info at the back talking about hibernation and specific animals and bugs that hibernate or prepare for winter. I can see many kids enjoying this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC.

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!

Winter Sleep – A Hibernation Story
Written by Sean Taylor & Alex Morss
Illustrated by Cinyee Chin

Educational sweet beautifully told story of how animals seen in Summer hibernate in winter. Hibernation is explained by grandmother to grandchild in words easily understood. Many animals are mentioned in the story and this is added to in further pages once the story ends. There is also information related to how hibernating animals can be helped in various ways by humans who do not hibernate.

I believe this would be a good book to read to young children as it would educate and open up dialogue between adult and child.

Thank you to Net Galley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Wonderful illustrations and a sweet story! Granny teaches her grandchild about hibernation and winter. My 7-year-old little nature/scientist daughter loved it! I also appreciated the information about different animals at the end of the book. Highly recommended!

I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Informative text is shared through a story of a grandmother and grandson exploring nature in summer and winter. Taylor provides facts through dialogue and discussion between the two main characters. Grandmother explains where animals go when the weather turns cold and explains hibernation in simple to understand language.
An entire section of animal facts follows the story.
The illustrations are detailed and realistic. The background looks like a typical forest setting.

Lovely illustrations and a gentle introduction to the concept of hibernation make this a great preschool read. I like the information in the back about the animals we encountered in the story. This would pair well with books like Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt or Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner or A Bear's Year by Kathy Duval.
I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this book. I had to fiddle about with some of the app settings so that I could actually see it and the text still didn't display properly (it didn't display as part of the book and just sat below the images) but it is really lovely.

The story is very simple: a boy goes to stay with his granny and during walks together, she teaches him about the nature that they encounter. When the boy visits at another time in the year and finds everything has changed for winter, his granny tells him about hibernation and explains that the animals are still there, they just can't see them. The illustrations in this book are stunning and initially, before reading other reviews and altering the settings, I actually thought this was a wordless picture book and still loved it.

As if that all wasn't enough, at the end of the book, there is a non-fiction element, giving information about the different animals the boy and his granny had seen on their walks, followed by suggestions of how the reader could help the wildlife around them.

This book will appeal to so many children and staff at school and I can't wait to get hold of a hard copy.

This book didn't really impress me. It might be fine for kids who are really interested in the subject of hibernation. While the non-fiction parts of the book are interesting enough, the story is kind of sparse.

This book is kind of a fiction/non-fiction hybrid. The first part is a story about a kid and their grandmother going into the woods and talking about hibernating animals, while the second part is more like a textbook with information about the hibernation habits of different creatures. I liked the first part better, even though it didn't have as much information. The second part just seemed like a bit of a slog to me. I wish that more of that factual information had been included in the story, rather than as a separate section at the back.

There are a number of typos and errors in the text (the dialogue paragraphs aren't punctuated correctly, for example) and the narrative overall is kind of dry. The illustrations are probably the strongest part of this book.

Overall, I didn't love this. However, if the technical errors are dealt with, this could be a good book to teach kids about the subject of hibernation.

Lovely, richly colored illustrations bring winter alive as a kid learns from Granny about what's going on behind the scenes during the bleak cold months each year. A good story that's also accompanied by a deeper dive into what hibernation looks like for different animals. Informative and fun, this is a great book for curious question-asking kids.

This was a cute story and my daughter and I enjoyed it. I think its nice that it is entertaining as well as educational.

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley for an honest review. This may be my new favorite picture book of the year. Excellent illustrations and a great story about what happens to animals in the winter. My nephew will be getting a copy, especially since he has a grandma Sylvie and she knows the names of the plants.

A lovely story with beautiful illustrations, Winter Sleep is the story of a young boy staying at his grandmother’s house during the winter. When he was there in the summer, the animals and plants were thriving. Now, months later, he doesn’t see any of the vibrant life he saw before. Granny Sylvie explains life is simply different in the winter, because many animals hibernate. They talk about bats and bears, caves and tree trunks as she leads him through the forest. In the end, the boy falls asleep cuddled up warm in bed as Granny continues to tell him about hibernation. The story is nice but a bit outshone by the illustrations. The book is worth the illustrations alone—gorgeous depictions of trees, snow, and wildlife. There is an excellent section after the story which discusses how different animals hibernate, such as: polar bears, wood frogs, ladybugs, etc.

I received a free copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

The story is simple and the art is beautiful. The non-fiction parts at the end were very interesting but probably more geared to children a little older as they were a bit boring for my four year old. A very good book for any little animal lovers who wonder where everything goes in the winter time.

Winter Sleep is due to be released September 17, 2019. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Winter Sleep was a really cute book that my six year old loved. A boy visits his grandmother and as they walk through the forest, they talk about how it is alive with activity. So many animals and insects living their lives. He returns in the winter and the atmosphere has changed. Animals are hibernating and the forest has grown much quieter. Grandma shows him that while it may seem quiet, the animals and insects are all there, just waiting for spring to return. I really loved the section at the end of the book with information on the animals and their hibernating rituals.

This was such a cute read! Not only does it have a very loveable grandmother and grandson, it also has tons of great little tidbits. I loved how they both interacted with each other, the flow of the story, and all the animals we got to visit and learn about. My daughter had a fun time with this one as well, her only addition to this was more drawings and detail. But, only a little.

Everything else in this world was cozy and wintery. There definitely was much to learn about. And, what a nice adventure it was! The end of their outing was just as cute, with Granny Sylvie tucking in her grandson for the night. We see him get to have his own bit of hibernation. If that wasn't enough to make you pick up this book, there's also several informative pages in the end about hibernation and its process. Definitely one to pick up!

***I received this copy from words & pictures via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

A fantastic picture book to introduce young readers to hibernation through a simple but effective story.
Told from the point of view of Sylvie's grandson, the book tells the story of how the change in seasons means 'the secret glade' near granny's house is completely changed and all the animals have disappeared. Granny Sylvie teaches the young boy, and the reader, all about how animals have gone into hibernation and what that means. Unseen by the narrator, the reader gets a glimpse of the animals hidden away under ground and under water through the clear illustrations, and is treated to information about a range of animals and their hibernation habits at the end of the book.

Thank you to the author and publishers for giving me access to an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
Winter Sleep uses a story of a boy who visits his grandmother as a framework to describe some of the ways that many woodland animals hibernate during the winter. The book begins with a brief look at some animals in their wide-awake forms during summer, before contrasting this with the colder and quieter winter scene.

I enjoyed the illustrations that use plenty of earthy colors to show pond life, smaller animals like mice and insects, as well as larger animals like bears as they take their winter rest. The "story" itself is a bit sparse, but serves well enough as a more conversational way to present the information.

This reminded me a bit of Over and Under the Snow. It's less poetic, but contains more informational pages at the end. It also refers to bugs as "minibeasts" which I thought was an amusing term -- I assume it's a British convention.

A beautiful book that tells the story of a child and grandparent exploring the natural world together. Fantastic illustrations, which have so much to look at and a very sweet little tale explaining hibernation. Then the added bonus of a factual section which gives the reader more information about hibernation and how to help. I loved this book and so did my class.

Disclaimer I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley.

3.5 stars
Grandparent stories are a sub genre of Children's books I find especially lovely. Grandparents have so much to pass down to their families and its always good to see that cherished and reflected in books for little readers. I like the mix of that special bond between a grandmother and grandchild with factual information about hibernation. I maybe wish for a stronger connection between child and grandma or background on their connection. Maybe I'm missing it because it is told from the perspective of the child.

Winter asleep sounds like a lovely story and from the illustrations I can see it looks beautiful but unfortunately I cannot see the pictures properly and there are no words and so it would be unfair of me to review the book when it has downloaded in a very unreadable way. I will be happy to rewrite the review if the book is fixed.

First thing- the illustrations in this book were amazing! I loved the story about the grandma and grandson exploring nature and spending time together. Had a great lesson about the changing of the seasons. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I adore stories that help children learn and this story does just that! A child goes to visit grandma at her wooded home and they get to experience the forest during summer, when all the flowers and plants are in bloom. When the animals fly and crawl about, but when they go again to the forest in the winter, it's a whole new world. A story teaching children about hibernation and in all honesty, it teaches me things too.
#Netgalley

A cosy and charming bedtime story set across a striking winter landscape. Through the glistening frost and the silky snow blankets, a peaceful underworld of sleeping woodland animals in their natural hibernation habitat is revealed.

Part story and part fact, Sean Taylor and Alex Morss have created a gentle yet detailed introduction into animals and their hibernation. Accompanied with delightfully, winsome illustrations by Cinyee Chiu, Winter Sleep makes for a wonderful addition to every child's bookcase.

Winter Sleep is a delightful book that celebrates the beauty of nature in winter as well as the beauty of relationship between grandmother and child. The educational elements about woodland creatures is clear and engaging, and the illustrations are delightful.

Although some of the animals and trees are not native to Alberta, the story about hiberation and how we can help animals that hiberate, would be useful in my elementary school library. The illustrations are lovely. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a story for young children that is about how animals hibernate in the winter. It is told through the point of view of a young child who is visiting his grandmother. Children will learn a lot of interesting facts as they look through this beautiful, peaceful and charmingly illustrated book. A great resource for young nature lovers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Especially love when books like this have additional scientific information for kids to explore in the back. So many animals and creatures hibernate!

A fun way to foster curiosity during the shift to the colder months.. love that it is a grandma who is the knowledgeable scientist and model of curiosity for her grandson.

The writing is just okay for me, but the other parts make it strong for me and so easy to use in the classroom/ with the young middle grade range.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

4/5 - Really liked it.

This book is split into two parts. The first is a sweet, beautifully illustrated story of a child learning about the cycles of nature from a wise grandparent. The second is a more scientific explanation of what hibernation is and an account of how different animals survive the winter.

The first section is very enjoyable and peaceful. It makes for a good bedtime story. The second is really interesting, to nature-loving children and adults alike. The vocabulary in this section is advanced, but accessible to the average child, especially one interested in nature.

I would recommend this to parents, educators, and librarians.

Winter Sleep is a story about a young boy that visits his grandmother in the spring. The two enjoy a nature walk together and explore various aspects of the natural world around the grandmother's house. The boy returns in the winter and hopes to have a similar experience with nature. However, he is disappointed to learn that many changes took place when winter began. He remarks that everything looks dead and his grandmother uses this as a teachable moment to help him learn about some of the organisms that are hibernating for the winter. The end of the book includes facts about different organisms that hibernate throughout the winter, including many that are not featured in the book.

This book would be great to share with elementary age children to introduce and expand on the idea of hibernation. I appreciate that the story answers questions that children may have about the changes in seasons. I also like all the factual information about hibernation, which could be used to encourage conversations between parents or teachers and children. The illustrations in the book make great use of color to show the change between seasons. Additionally, illustrations allow children to see how some of the organisms actually hibernate (underground, in trees, under the water).

I received a free copy of this title from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#WinterSleep #NetGalley

Parts of this picture book about hibernation are really wonderful, but parts left me frustrated. The book is a story for the first half, about a boy who visits his grandmother's property and explores all of the nature in the summer and then comes back to visit in the winter when it appears that all the animals are gone. Grandma explains about hibernation and the illustrations show lots of animals like bears, fish, insects, bats, bees, etc. hibernating. The second half of the book goes into paragraphs about the ways that various animals, insects and other creatures hibernate, as well as a definition of hibernation.

My frustration with the book was that it doesn't do a great job of explaining what hibernation actually is, and doesn't deal with the fact that scientists don't even agree about whether some of the animals mentioned actually hibernate. It also doesn't talk about the fact that many animals rouse from "hibernation" and go out and gather food and such on warmer days.

For example, here's what the Sierra Club says about whether bears hibernate:

"Ask anyone which animal comes to mind when they hear the word “hibernate” and their response will likely be a brown or black bear. It may be common to picture a burly, fattened-up mama grizzly slumbering away in her winter den deep in the woods while the white snow blankets everything in sight. This follows with the dangerous misconception that sleeping bears are nearly impossible to arouse during the winter months. True hibernation occurs when an animal drastically lowers their body temperature to nearly match their surroundings, and sleeps through the winter. Hibernating animals, like woodchucks, appear lifeless and are not easily awakened.

Bears, on the other hand, exhibit torpor, a shorter-term reduction in body temperature accompanied by lethargy. Heart rate drops, but not as much as that of true hibernators. Though less active than usual, bears in torpor can readily respond to external stimuli."

The book does not talk at all about the fact that many of the animals mentioned do rouse on warmer days, or about lowered body temperature as a means of determining hibernation. If you're going to pick up a picture book to teach children about hibernation, it ought to have really good information about the subject and cover even the elements that aren't as easy to explain.

All that said, it has great art and it does provide a lot of information about what various animals and insects do in the winter.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

It is summer and a little boy is visiting his grandmother’s house. She knows all about nature and shares about the flowers, the pond, the birds, butterflies etc. as they walk to the clearing by the pond. It is a beautiful and peaceful place to be. When he goes back in the winter to visit, he wonders what has happened to everything. Is everything dead? His 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 the winter months.

I loved the illustrations in this book. The colours were varied with greens and bright colours for summer, followed by shades of white, brown, and grey for winter. The cutaways in the winter show where and how the animals hibernate. At the back of the book was more information about hibernation. I read this book with my grandchildren and I liked that there was something for children of various ages. My 3 year old granddaughter enjoyed the pictures and seeing the animals sleeping. My 6 year old grandson enjoyed learning about the hibernation facts that I read him at the back of the book. This is a wonderful book to use in primary classrooms when learning about the change of seasons, animal adaptations and the environment. I definitely recommend this one to schools and classrooms.

A very sweet story with lovely, quiet illustrations taking the reader through nature to enjoy the changing of the seasons. A good explanation of hibernation. Engaging read-aloud.

A really cute way to introduce children to animals that hibernate albeit the book was short. The artstyle is extremely adorable and I love the coloring they chose in each page that I wanted more. I wasn't aware that insects hibernate too since they usually have a short life span.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

What a lovely read! Firstly - the illustrations are amazing, and then all the stories about animals and hibernation. Great story, lovely lessons, and I loved the tips on how to help wildlife during winter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – words & pictures for Winter Sleep A Hibernation Story by Sean Taylor and Alex Morss. A young child visits their Granny Sylvie in the summer and goes out exploring with her to see all the animals nearby. When the child returns in the winter, where have all the animals gone. Granny Sylvie teaches the young child all about hibernation of animals and insects including bats and bumblebees.

After the fictional story, there is a more scientific section discussing the hibernation routine for different mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and birds. There is also a section on how you can help hibernating animals with ideas like building a bat house. There is also a list of websites to find even more information. A cute story with lots of true information comes together for a great book.

This was a pretty cute story about winter, and hibernation, with plenty of great hibernation facts and some beautiful illustrations.

My apologies that I was not able to download this book and read it before it was archived in NetGalley, so I am unable to provide a review.

5★
"HOW YOU CAN HELP
• Leave out fresh water and feeders to help birds in the cold weather.
• Create some safe winter cover for mammals. This can be done by putting up a bat box, building a log pile, or making a compost heap or wild scrubby area.
• Provide safe resting places for reptiles in compost, leaf piles, logs, and rocks.
• Plant lots of flowers so there’s plenty of food for minibeasts when they wake up in spring.
• Clear your pond of fallen autumn leaves so the water stays healthy for pond life during winter."

And that's the end of the story! A little boy loves to visit his Granny Sylvie's house because she knows everything worth knowing and takes him to a secret glade in the woods where they see lots of animals, birds, insects, fish, flowers, ferns, trees - all things that would delight any of us.

When he returns to visit in the winter, he wants to know why so many have disappeared. Granny, of course, knows more than the names of the wild things, she knows all about them and explains it in simple language, sparking a real interest.

The illustrations by Cinyee Chiu are delightful and I'm sure in the final publication, the printing will be fine. You'll see in some of these examples, a few words have overlapping letters. Following is a list of the pictures I included in my Goodreads review.

Picture of Granny Sylvie and grandson looking at a dormouse on the tree

Picture of the dormouse hibernating

Picture of Granny Sylvie showing where the stag beetles are hidden down underfoot

Pictures of other small creatures hidden away for the winter.

Picture showing frog "asleep" under water

Picture of Mama bear hibernating with a cub.

Picture of one of several pages of very little creatures

There is a lot of information explaining what hibernation is and where to learn more about animals and reptiles. This should set a lot of kids on their way. Most children are curious about the natural world, and this is a great book to whet their appetites. And don't forget the list I put at the front.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for the preview from which I've selected a handful of pictures to whet your appetites, too. Excellent for the northern hemisphere holiday season! All grandparents - note!

An adorably sweet picture book that explains the turn of seasons and all that comes with it (i.e. the loss of animals). My class enjoyed reading this book!

Winter Sleep is a warm and charming picture book with beautiful illustrations. It was also really neat with the additional information about hibernation in the back, so kids can learn more about it. I'm sure this is a book that could work well in the classroom.