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What Members Thought
Twelve Kinds of Ice I love, love, love this book! It so beautifully captures the magic of childhood, of winter, the joy and thrill that comes from being passionate about something, and of being imaginative and loving and determined. It is beautifully written! It's the sort of book I just want to HUG and, oh, how I wished I could have been friends with the Bryan's and go skating with them. Being a California girl (Northern California, but foothills, not mountains), I am used to snow only as an oc
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My husband just accepted a job in a place where the average winter temperature hovers under 20 degrees and is surrounded by snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Brrr. I have not been excited about the prospect of FREEEEEZING so ferociously. I'm just a warm-blooded, vegas-weather kind of girl.
But sitting with little L this morning and snuggling under blankies while reading 'Twelve Kinds of Ice', I would be lying to say that I wasn't a little excited about it. Ellen Obed wrote this book as a kind of ode t ...more
But sitting with little L this morning and snuggling under blankies while reading 'Twelve Kinds of Ice', I would be lying to say that I wasn't a little excited about it. Ellen Obed wrote this book as a kind of ode t ...more
I don't know what I might have rated this book if I hadn't heard several people say it was one of the best books of the year, a strong Newbery contender, etc; but now I can't separate it from that. A perfectly nice book, but I don't see anything very special about it, and in one spot (the thaw) the page breaks were very awkward. I rolled my eyes at the strict gender lines drawn between figure skaters and hockey players, as I imagine many kids would.
The book has a classic, old-fashioned feel that ...more
The book has a classic, old-fashioned feel that ...more
Twelve Kinds of Ice is both simple and beautiful at the same time. This is a small book that focuses on the different types of ice that come with the colder temperatures through the duration of the winter. It made me happy because of the gorgeous language and the way it harkens back to a simpler time where the formation of ice brings so many joys and activities. These aren't children who come home, only to then be engaged in many extracurricular activities or children who spend hours in front of
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This is what real writing is. I loved this little treasure of a book. Full of descriptions so vivid that I'm pretty sure I grew up with this family. Writing about the first thick ice of the winter, "We looked beneath the ice and saw what we could not see in summer-boulders and cracks between boulders, black shadows and sunken tree branches. And we saw what was not there-the sullen backs and open jaws of hibernating monsters rising up from the lake bottom" Oy.
I'm not sure how popular this will be ...more
I'm not sure how popular this will be ...more
I really like this, but I'm a little stumped when thinking about which kids I'd give this to from my public library. Maybe the kids who like Judy Moody, Clemetine, et al and also like ice skating? It's a lovely remembrance of Obed's childhood ice experiences, but the sizing makes it seem more like a gift book than anything else. McClintock's illustrations are lovely and fit the old-fashioned mood to a tee.
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What a sweet little book! I read the whole thing in about 15 minutes, but really enjoyed that 15 minutes! It made me wish I'd grown up in Maine with a homemade skating rink in my backyard!
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I'll rate it higher, perhaps, when my kids actually read it.
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A very lovely book. Having spent the bulk of my elementary school years in East Lansing, Michigan, this book brought back vividly my memories of winter skating at a local pond, the way ice formed over snow and we crunched it down in with our boots, and when it got so cold the streets were all icy too. Also reminded me for its lyrical looking-back sensibility of Cynthia Rylant's When I Was Young in the Mountains.
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I grew up in Texas, so the world of ice Obed describes sounds like a magical fairy land to me. This is a beautiful book about childhood happiness.
Charming, great writing, lovely pictures. I liked it.
Finally found & read this little gem of a book.
4.5 stars
Jan 31, 2012
Alison
marked it as to-read
May 14, 2012
Kate Hastings
marked it as to-read
May 24, 2012
Shawn
marked it as to-read
Jul 25, 2012
Elisabeth
marked it as to-read
Jul 28, 2012
Barbara
marked it as to-read
Sep 27, 2012
Wendy Garland
marked it as to-read
Dec 08, 2012
Laurie
marked it as to-read
Jan 25, 2013
Shauna
marked it as to-read
