You Make Me Smile by Layn Marlow

You Make Me Smile by Layn Marlow
Buy You Make Me Smile by Layn Marlow at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Zoe Page
Summary: A little girl playing in the snow makes a new friend in this simple, magical tale.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: October 2013
Publisher: OUP Oxford
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0192794734
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Snow, at least for us in the UK, isn’t an everyday occurrence, and for children, unbothered by traffic chaos and school closures and boilers on the brink of a breakdown, it can be rather magical. This book is about that magic.

It is the simplest of books with a story that can be summed up in one sentence: a little girl makes a snowman. And yet that doesn’t do it justice, because this tale is just precious. The illustrations are gorgeous, and there’s a lot of helpful detail in the pictures that show you what a nice little girl this is. She knows to put on her coat and scarf and boots before running outside, for example. I’m not much of a coat person, but I would have read this and followed her lead, I’m sure. The penultimate pages go beyond winter and you’ve never met such a happy child in all your life, even playing as she is, on her own in the garden.

It’s a beautiful, straightforward story that perfectly depicts the little girl’s joy at creating her new friend, and he is a friend as well as a work of art. The story tells itself and, much like the most well known story of a snowman, it shows that you don’t need many words to get the message across. This is the sort of book you’ll read aloud a few times and then they’ll have memorised. I always find those sorts of books the best with pre-schoolers, because they get so excited and happy knowing what’s about to happen, and can ‘help’ you read it.

This is the perfect book for the approaching holidays, and even though it’s about winter in general, it still has a bit of a Christmassy feel to it, and in my house would go in the Christmas books box, to come back out every year. I can’t stress enough how sweet this is, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Thanks go to the publishers for sending us this book.

We're read, and adored, many a festive book for this age group. Just a few of which are Harry and the Snow King by Ian Whybrow, The Christmas Unicorn by Anna Currey and Merry Christmas, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester-Clark

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You can read more book reviews or buy You Make Me Smile by Layn Marlow at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.

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