Young Reading: Warm up to these January offerings

Happy 20th birthday to Gary Paulsen's Newbery Honor Book The Winter Room, which is celebrating with a paperback version by Scholastic, complete with an "After Words" section to accompany the book. While we dread make-up days in June, our household looks forward to days that promise snow flurries -- sleeping late in cozy pajamas, sledding with friends, hot chocolate and curled-up reading next to the fire. Let there be snow!

THE SNOW DAY. By Komako Sakai. Scholastic. Ages 5-7. $16.99.

First published in Japan, The Snow Day translates wonderfully for English readers. A little bunny, softly illustrated, cannot go to kindergarten when snowfall cancels school. He wants to play outside, but his mother tells him to wait until it stops snowing. His father's flight home is delayed because of snow, so the bunny and his mother stay in their warm apartment playing cards all day as snow transforms the outdoors into a wintry white land.

By the time the snow stops falling, bedtime has arrived. Despite the darkness, the bunny and his mother head outside to play in the cold, cold snow. We love this book!

Also read A PENGUIN STORY. By Antoinette Portis. Harper Collins. Ages 4-8. $17.99.

ZAC POWER #4: FROZEN FEAR. By H.I. Larry. Feiwel & Friends. Ages 8-12. $3.99.

Looking for an action-packed, boy-centric series that is easy to read and even easier to enjoy? The Zac Power books hit the mark with their "24 Hours to Save the World ... And Get Home for Dinner" premise. Zac may be young, but he works as a spy. His life is full of adventure and ultra-cool gadgets, which are illustrated throughout the chapter book.

SUNNY HOLIDAY. By Coleen Murtagh Paratore. Scholastic. Ages 8-12. $15.99.

Coleen Paratore is becoming one of those authors who can churn out a winner with every plot. With Sunny Holiday, Paratore works her magic again.

Precocious Sunny Holiday thinks that January is bland in her urban neighborhood. She concocts a plan with her best friend to create a new holiday in January that is all about kids. Her favorite color is yellow, and she is just as sunny as her name, despite a father in prison and an overworked mother.

When Sunny's resourcefulness and positive outlook bring her to the mayor's attention, Sunny's personality and idea for a new January holiday prove to be good for the whole neighborhood.

THE WHITE GATES. By Bonnie Ramthun. Random House. Ages 12 and up. 242 pages. $16.99.

Torin Sinclair's mom accepts the post of the town doctor at a resort ski town. When Torin moves to join his mom, he can't wait for snowboarding lessons. Instead of being welcomed, he is shunned, ignored or harassed by students who mutter something about a curse. Torin soon learns that the age-old curse on the town doctor serves as a cover-up while the high-school snowboarding team gains an illegal edge on competition.

The fatal results of the plot seem to point to Torin's mother. With the help of the only two friends he has made, Raine and Drake, Torin solves the mystery behind the curse and the menace behind the snowboarding team.

FAR FROM YOU. By Lisa Schroeder. Simon & Schuster. Ages 14 and up. 355 pages. $15.99.

Several years ago, Alice's mom died of pancreatic cancer. Alice's boyfriend Blaze and her best friend Claire are the only people she trusts after Alice's dad remarries. Her stepmom, Victoria, tries everything she can to include Alice, but only makes things worse when Alice's half-sister Ivy is born. Everything starts to go downhill when Claire and Alice get into an argument. Alice's family goes to northern California for the holidays with the new baby in tow. While there, her dad has to leave for business. Alice and Victoria driving home in a blizzard, get trapped on a back road with little food and water.

Alice learns to value life, whether it is hers, Ivy's, Victoria's or her birth mother's, as she battles the freezing weather. This suspenseful novel teaches a precious lesson to sometimes-surly teenage readers everywhere.

SHIMMER. By Dallas Reed. HarperCollins. Ages 14 and up. 314 pages. $8.99.

When Justin throws a party for the kids at his new Colorado high school while his executive bigwig father is gone, Justin has no idea that horror will be unleashed on the small resort town named Winter. In Justin's father's office sits an odd box that feels as if it is made of skin. With prickly foreshadowing, Justin hides the weird box. Since his father's office is off-limits, he doesn't anticipate the problems his unchaperoned party will create.

Predictably, the box is discovered and opened. With references to the mythological Pandora's Box, all seven deadly sins infect Winter's inhabitants and cause them to commit horrible acts. Emma, another new kid, whose mother is the chef at the resort under construction where the box was unearthed, and Russ, a local snowboarder, must first survive before finding a solution to end the horrific mayhem. A creepy, spine-tingling read with mature graphic images, Shimmer is not for the weak of heart or for those who still crawl in parents' beds after scary movies.

■ Monica Young and Hannah Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com. View book reviews at the Journal in Education site at www.jie.journalnow.com.