Snow Angel, Sand Angel, written by Lois-Ann Yamanaka and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky, opens with a scene of Claire drawing a season to illustrate in a diorama. She is in Ms. Kurokawa’s classroom, and the lesson is about the four seasons. Claire is leery about the assignment because she has never seen a winter with snow.
As luck would have it, she draws winter. Her brother, Timbo, ends up choosing winter as well.
They both gamely create scenes of winter based on their understandings from media. Timbo’s includes origami snowflakes that hang from a fishing line over his snowman. Claire’s show’s the arrival of a golden plover bird, skinny and hungry from flying three thousand miles nonstop from Alaska” to Hawai’i and its warmer climes.
Claire realizes though that as a native to Big Island, Hawai’i, she has never seen snow. Their father promises them that there is snow in Hawai’i…and he promises to drive them to the peak of Mauna Kea after the next storm. Every weekend, he “takes my mother, Timbo, and me to the top of the tallest mountain in the world, if you measure from seafloor to summit.” Their drive involves winding roads “between gray and black lava fields, fallen ‘ōhi’a lehua trees, and patches of scrub grass.”
Their mother cuts up old beach towels to make scarves for the children. To make believe that there is snow, her brother Timbo drags her on the back of an old rubber tire to simulate sledding. They make a snowman from lumps of ice.
Later, their father takes them to Hapuna Beach, where they make sand into a sandy “snowman.” She and her brother may sand angels in the sand by lying in it and flapping their arms and legs.
Snow Angel, Sand Angel shows how human togetherness and shared imagination in nature can transport them all into a different clime. The illustrations by Ashley Lukashevsky are potent, with brilliant colors and dynamic implied motion on every page. The art style reads as free-floating and energetic. The artist hand is memorable.
In some ways, the forays to the top of Mauna Lea and the sands of Hapuna Beach are better than the next best thing to snow. Readers may enjoy the lush treasures of Hawai’i and its flora and fauna.
This book is richly conceptualized, with a focus on winter and snow and faraway places illuminating the unique wonders of Hawai’i.
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
