Booking Through Thursday: Wintery Books

This week's BTT topic:

. . . what are the most “wintery” books you can think of? The ones that almost embody Winter?

Actually, the books that first come to mind are mostly children's books for some reason. I suppose The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the obvious choice – what with its snow-covered land of Narnia and its White Witch. But the two books that I thought of immediately were The Bobbsey Twins, and The Happy Hollisters and the Ice Carnival Mystery.

I think I must have read just about all the Bobbsey Twins books at one time or another when I was growing up. And the twins were always going to ski resorts and snowy camps and having snowball fights and building snow forts. Most of my books were passed down to me by my older cousins, so the illustrations of Nan, Bert, Flossie and Freddie all done up in their snowsuits and stocking caps were very reminiscent of the opening scenes in "It's a Wonderful Life."

I discovered The Happy Hollisters fairly late in my youth – I think I was already ten or eleven by the time I read the first book. But I loved it, and went on to read several others. I was an only child, so the idea of a family of five kids intrigued me. Also, I've always loved mystery novels, and each of the Hollister books involved a mystery of some sort. And I think The Ice Carnival Mystery stuck with me mainly because of the cover – two of the Hollisters sitting on giant ice sculptures. For a kid growing up in south Texas, that was tremendously exotic.


As to wintery books for grownups, I'm sure I've read some, but nothing really jumps out at me. Maybe because now that I'm all grown up and living in a place where we really do have a winter, I prefer to read about less snowy climes. I've probably blocked out all memory of wintery books. Have to wait for the spring thaw, when my brain warms up – then maybe something will come to me.