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Twelve Kinds of Ice

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Twelve Kinds of Ice
by Ellen Bryan Obed, illustrations by Barbara McClintock
Houghton Mifflin, 2012. 64 pgs.  Intermediate

        When you grow up in Maine, there will be lots of ice.  Ellen Bryan Obed did just that and has parlayed her love of winter and skating into a lovely, old-fashioned little book about all the different kinds of ice one could find through the seasons in Maine.  First Ice, just a skim on the sheep pails in the barn; Second Ice, thicker, pulls free like a pane of glass to be dropped and smashed on the barn floor. Soon, even better, there is ice to skate on:  the black ice of Great Pond, and then the family's own rink, where there were skating parties and figure skating and hockey. A gentle, beautiful reminder of life in the country, and perhaps of times gone by, Twelve Kinds of Ice is a treasure that should please and comfort multiple generations.

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