Emma's Magic Winter (An I Can Read Book)

A Canadian writer of children's novels such as Look through My Window (1970), picture books such as Bats about Baseball (1995) and autobiographical titles such as Little by Little (1988), Little shows her sympathetic recall of childhood problems and feelings in this beginning reader. Emma may be too shy to speak up when she reads in class, but she finds that she has just enough gumption to befriend Sally, the new girl next door. The rewards of that friendship include a winter full of imaginative play centered around the girls' identical "magic" boots, the discovery that Emma's not too shy to read aloud to Sally's little brother, Josh, and Emma's final triumph as she conquers her fear and reads to the class. Best known for her illustrations of Pomerantz's The Outside Dog (1993), Plecas' expressive watercolor-washed ink drawings capture the nuances of the characters' feelings with simplicity and sensitivity. An appealing choice for beginning readers. Carolyn Phelan