A boy builds a snowman, and at midnight it comes to life. That is the whole of Raymond Briggs’s story, told without a single word, and it has held children silent since 1978. This edition builds more than 35 flaps into twelve board pages, so every scene has something to open, and the wordless story turns into a game of what is hiding behind the next one.

Because there are no words, the child does the telling. A two year old points and names, a four year old narrates, and a grandparent who watched the film every winter gets to explain the flying part. It is the rare book that works from a lap at one and still gets pulled off the shelf at five.

This is the 1998 Random House Nifty Lift-and-Look printing, which the publisher no longer lists, so a fresh copy is a small find. Stocking sized, and a natural companion to the other snow day books here.

Spot’s Snowy Day The Snowy Nap A Thing Called Snow