Daisy Dawson and the Big Freeze

Image of Daisy Dawson and the Big Freeze
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
November 7, 2011
Publisher/Imprint: 
Candlewick
Pages: 
96
Reviewed by: 

A girl who holds conversations with animals! A small, female Dr. Doolittle—how fun!

Daisy Dawson loves the snow, but when she realizes the newborn lambs are out in the snowy field, she dashes out with the farm dog, Boom, to check on them. At school she must immediately get busy cleaning out the gerbils’ cage since she is the Tidy Monitor. Outside in the schoolyard, Hazel and Conker Squirrel are having a problem making a snow squirrel—its tail keeps falling off.

Daisy talks to Mama Ewe and agrees to help her keep up with Woolverton, a baby lamb who wanders off to see what this big snowy world is like.

When Trixie Cat appears on the scene, her talent seems to be stirring up trouble for all the other animals. Daisy and Boom continue to help all the farm animals solve their problems, even a nearly blind badger. Picking up on an underlying theme in books such as Winnie the Pooh—in which Daisy thinks grown-ups have enough complications without having to deal with her special gift—Daisy Dawson is a multilayered but easily digestible reader.

When young readers have been read many picture books, even have acquired some reading skills themselves and are saying, “I can do it myself,” Daisy Dawson is the perfect next step. Young elementary-age children and new readers have quite a feeling of accomplishment when they graduate to “early chapter books.” Just the idea they have read one chapter, then another of the six chapters becomes a major accomplishment. A new chapter is also a great way to stop, a place to put your bookmark, and turn off the light.

Steve Voake’s Daisy Dawson also stars in three previous books, Daisy Dawson and the Secret Pond, Daisy Dawson Is On Her Way!, and Daisy Dawson and the Secret Pool. In this third adventure she enjoys an extraordinary relationship in an enviable snowy environment. It is a story about friendship and coming home again. Jessica Meserve pictures all the fun and beauty of a snowy winter day with her exuberant illustrations.