Whisper In the Snow, Kate Westerlund's Christmastime story about animals who hear a deserted teddy's whispers for rescue, find him, and return him, better than new, to his little owner, is nice enough. However, the story is heavily laden with dialogue between animals who are difficult to differentiate, even as depicted in Ferilund Oral's lovely illustrations. This is a pleasant book, but overly complicated for young readers.

This story is so, so sweet. And the illustrations are really well-done. It's a great, warm and fuzzy story that doesn't necessarily have to be about "Christmas," but it does provide a nice setting. It leaves you with a smile on your face.

(Bonus points for "How do we get the bear to the girl?" "It's Christmas Eve; we can put him down the chimney.")

Woodland animals find a lost teddy bear in the snow. They team up to fix up the bear and return it to its owner in time for Christmas.

A group of animals find a teddy bear lost under the snow. One of the rabbits hears it whisper, “I’m lost”. They dig it up and take it to the real Bear wondering who it belongs to and how to get it back to where it belongs. There they fix it up with a new button eye and clothes and stitches. The animals work together to fix it. Some birds think they have found the owner and so the end happens on Christmas even and the animals watch from the woods.

The artwork is beautiful and the snow is deep. The animals are sweet and cute and I love this story. It’s a lovely story of the Christmas Spirit of the season. I thought this would be about winter and it end up being a Christmas story. Giving can be such a beautiful thing.

The nephew thought this was a fun book. He loved seeing the animals find the stuffed bear and the story engaged him. It moved along. He gave this 3 stars. I’m impressed with his rating.