I’m pretty sure that there’s not a child out there that doesn’t dream of waking up on a winter morning and finding the whole world under a thick blanket of white snow. That’s exactly what the children of London found when they woke up on Thursday 5th December though. During the previous night it had snowed and snowed and snowed so hard that in the morning mobile phones buzzed and emails pinged with the news that there was no school today. But in Snow Day it seems that not everyone got the message as two people did turn up for school. Danny and Mr Trapper.
Putting aside any practicalities about Danny going back home or safeguarding or working alone issues surrounding the scenario and you instead have the makings of a snowy adventure, and the start of a new pupil teacher relationship.
Now, the problem at the start of Snow Day is that Mr Trapper and Danny are sworn enemies. Mr Trapper was the strictest teacher in the school and Danny was probably the worst pupil in the country. But, on Snow Day they have no option but to be together.
The school day starts as usual with history, English and science lessons, but then it was break time, and whilst Mr Trapper stood there smoking his pipe (is that even allowed in schools? Probably not!) Danny set about trying to dow hat most of his school friends were probably already doing – build a snowman. But when Mr Trapper sees him struggling, something amazing happens. Mr Trapper actually talks to him. And before long they’re building snowmen together.
The timetable goes out of the window for the rest of the school day and the two of them just have fun together in the snow until it was home time. You see Danny is actually quite lonely as his Dad is an incredibly busy man who never has time to play with him. Mr Trapper’s father was very similar, and he’d never had children of his own to play with.
On the night of the 5th December it didn’t snow again, and so on Friday all the children had to go back to school and life went on much as before. Apart from one thing. Mr Trapper and Danny were now the Snow Day Boys and this made them special. Come December the 5th the following year they had their plans all drawn up and ready. They most certainly weren’t going to waste the morning on history, English and science again!
I have to admit that when I opened the Snow Day book I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Written by Richard Curtis (as in the same Richard Curtis that is behind some of the country’s best comedy writing) I didn’t know how well his style would adapt to a children’s book, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. I loved the idea of showing that grown ups like to have fun in the snow too, and that they can get lonely as well. In fact, that was something Little Miss C expressed surprise at in the story. The illustrations by award winning Rebecca Cobb accompany the story beautifully.
In fact there’s only one downside as far as I’m concerned. What on earth do I do if we don’t have snow on December 5th, as LMC now seems to think that we’re guaranteed a Snow Day off school on that date!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Snow Day for the purposes of this review. This post contains affiliate links.
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