The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

The story in The Jacket I Wear in the Snow is simple--a little girl lists all of the layers of clothes that she wears to play in the snow. But this story is excellent, especially for preschoolers, for a couple of reasons.

Do you know the nursery rhyme, "The House that Jack Built?" It starts like this:

This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built...

And so on. Lots of picture books have been written in this format, and they're great for pre-readers and new readers because the child knows what words are coming next. It's a type of predictable book.

But The Jacket I Wear in the Snow is not only a predictable book, it's also a rebus--some of the words in the story are replaced by little pictures. Rebuses are great for pre-readers because they can "read" the pictures in the rebus along with you. So this book is a pre-reader double-whammy.

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow
Written by Shirley Neitzel and illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker
Age range*: 2-5
My rating: 4 stars [out of five]

*Age ranges are very flexible.

Full disclosure: I don't receive any compensation for reviewing children's books--the books are usually just checked out from the local library.