Where is Winter?

On a cold winter’s day, the village wakes up under a blanket of snow. All the children dash outside to make a snowman. Mika and Pip, a couple without children, or a dog, or a cat, make a snow child. Their special child is given a gravel mouth, a twig for a nose, and pink and yellow buttons for eyes. Then something strange happens: breath curls up out of its mouth. The child of ice and snow comes to life, laughs and runs, and is given the name Winter. The top shelf of the freezer becomes a bed.

In the spring, Winter has to stay indoors and gain strength in the freezer. But that’s boring, so he secretly goes outside to play hide-and-seek in the spring sunshine, and afterwards no one can find him. Months later, at the spot where Winter melted, a beautiful winter flower grows, with pink and yellow buds. And when snow finally falls again, it brings the village hope of a new winter miracle.

In short, rhythmical sentences and in delightful, poetic language, Gerda Dendooven tells an optimistic and comforting story that makes us feel what the arrival of a child means, how painful parting can be, and how hope brings life. The sturdy characters so typical of Dendooven have expressive, characterful faces with a playful twist. The mischievous Winter, his stocky frame soft as snow, and the lanky Mika and Pip in lemon-yellow and pink are irresistibly loveable.