Author Description

In the winter of 1993, 1994 and 1996, the east coast of America had tremendous snow storms. The blizzard of 1996 dumped nearly 20 inches during two days, resulting in the snowiest January on record for Centre Country, Pennsylvania. During these years, we lived in an 1800's farmhouse on a dirt road and we heated with wood. We were a young family, Mom, Dad and a son and daughter as well as various pets and livestock. We were fortunate in that we considered each snowstorm an adventure. In addition to shoveling lots of snow, building multiple snowmen, constructing snow forts, engaging in snowball flights and feeding the birds, we drank lots of hot chocolate, played lots of board games, ate quite a few soup dinners, read countless story books and dealt with the electricity going off frequently by keeping a supply of candles on the kitchen counter. This story book is based on these adventures. While most of it is true, as in many story books, there are portions that just help the story to flow along. However, there was a little girl who loved winter, up to a certain point! She covered the windows with a construction paper flower garden one winter, in the hopes of encouraging spring to find us. Marilyn Turner McPheron is a printmaker who particularly enjoys linocuts as an expressive medium to tell stories. She has lived in many houses during the past thirtyfive years but the longest was the thirteen years spent in an 1800's yellow farmhouse, on a gravel road, in the woods of Pennsylvania while her son and daughter were growing up.