December 21st, the first day of winter, is almost here. When you think about it, we started working our way toward winter back on June 21st, the first day of summer when we had the most amount of sunlight. From that point on, we lost several minutes of light each day which allowed our part of the hemisphere to slowly cool down until we have winter. With winter comes cold and with cold comes SNOW. Now I know it’s hard to see the beauty of a snowflake when a blizzard is howling and you have 12 plus inches of swirling snow to remove from your driveway, but if you took the time to analyze one snowflake, you would see a creation that is truly unique.Snowflakes are growing crystals, not frozen raindrops, which is what sleet is. They are usually six sided, but rarely they can be three or twelve sided. In the clouds, when one droplet of water begins to freeze, it turns to ice and a snowflake is created. It continues to grow as more water vapor in the air condenses and freezes on it. This process continues the whole time the flake is falling. A snowflake is affected by the temperature and humidity around it and because no two snowflakes fall the exact same way, each snowflake will be unique.
Through time, many people have attempted to record the different designs that are created. The first attempt was back in 1555, by Olaus Magnus, the Archbishop of Upsala. Seeing as there were no cameras back then, woodcuts were used to show what a snowflake looked like. Better observations could be made in 1665 when the microscope was developed. Robert Hooke included sketches of snowflakes in his book Micrographia. More observations and books followed the initial attempts, but these books, just like the first ones, only contained sketches of snowflakes from the author’s memory. In 1885, the first snowflake was successfully photographed by Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farmer who had always had a love affair with snowflakes. He captured more than 5,000 images of snowflakes, many of which are in his book Snow Crystals. In the children’s book Snowflake Bentley you will read about how dedicated he was to this passion of his. The next two books written by Kenneth Libbrecht are phenomenal. In The Secret Life of a Snowflake you will be taken on a step by step journey of a snowflake from its creation to its final resting point on a child’s mitten. To capture the beauty of these fleeting crystals, you need to check out The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty. You will be able to see snowflakes in a way you’ve never seen them before. The pictures will take your breath away.
If you’d rather read about someone else dealing with the snow season, then you might enjoy these titles:
-Light on Snow-Shreve
-A Reliable Wife-Goolrick
-Hard Winter-Boogs
-Brian’s Winter-Paulsen
-Winter Solstice-Pilcher
-The Mitford Snowmen-Karon
-Esther’s Gift-Karon
-Shepherds Abiding-Karon
-Snow Day: A Novel-Coffey
-Snowed In-Bartolomeo
For you mystery buffs, you might enjoy these books:
-61 Hours: A Reacher Novel
-Ice Cold: A Rizoli and Isles Novel
-The Chocolate Snowman Murders: A Chocoholic Mystery-Carl
-Tell Me Pretty Maiden-Bowen
-White Corridor-Fowler
If you can get the kids to come indoors, they might enjoy these picks:
-A Season of Gifts-Peck
-Duck at the Door-Urbanovic
-The Snow Tree-Repchuk
-Winter on the Farm-Wilder
-In the Snow: Who’s Been Here-George
-Footprints in the Snow-Benjamin
-Winter Barn-Parnall
-Bedtime for Bear-Helquist
Keep warm, happy reading, and just remember, when December 21 rolls around, we are on our way back to summer!
Picture courtesy of Easicat
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