Carl's Snowy Afternoon

By Alexandra Day

When Madeleine's parents go to the Pond Party, they leave Carl and the baby at home for a cozy winter afternoon with a babysitter. But Carl and Madeleine have plans of their own— they want to play in the snow! After getting all bundled up, they sneak off to go sledding, build a snowman, and even make an appearance at the party and try sliding on the ice at the pond. Of course, resourceful Carl gets the baby home before her parents return—and the babysitter is never the wiser.

Everyone's favorite Rottweiler appears here in a wintertime romp.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Nov 10, 2009
• ISBN: 9781429915922

Alexandra Day

Alexandra Day is the pseudonym for Sandra Louise Woodward Darling. She is the author of Good Dog, Carl and the rest of the beloved Carl books, including Carl Goes Shopping, Carl’s Christmas, Carl’s Birthday and Carl’s Snowy Afternoon. Darling was born in 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a large and close-knit family. Painting was a popular family recreation, and almost every family excursion included one or more easels and a variety of sketch pads, chalks, paints, and pencils. For four years, the family lived on a hundred-acre farm in Kentucky. Here young Sandra grew especially fond of riding and training horses, and became a dog owner for the first time. Living in the country also provided plenty of time for reading, a life-long passion. Sandra illustrated her first book in 1983: The Teddy Bears' Picnic, a popular children's song by Jimmy Kennedy. That same year, she was visiting Zurich, Switzerland, when she came across a volume of old German picture sheets, one of which featured a poodle playing with a baby who was supposed to be taking a nap. This image proved the inspiration for Good Dog, Carl. The Darlings' own dog, a Rottweiler named Toby, was the model for the book's main character. Since then, two other Darling Rottweilers have posed as Carl in the seven sequels: the late Arambarri, who was named for one of the Darlings' favorite jai alai players; and Zabala, who currently moonlights as an Our Best Friend therapy dog, visiting hospitals to cheer patients. About her work Sandra says: "I think that one of the reasons my illustrations have appealed to people is that they can sense my sincerity. I know that marvels exist which are just outside our ordinary experience, but that at any moment we may turn a corner and encounter one of them. Children also believe this, and because they and I have this conviction in common, we, as creator and audience, make good partners." Sandra lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, Harold.

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Reviews for Carl's Snowy Afternoon

[gundulabaehre · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Carl's Snowy Afternoon is the second picture book about Carl the lovable Rottweiler that I have had the pleasure to read. Maybe not quite as cute and sweet as Carl's Summer Vacation it is in many ways more humorous and had me laughing and chuckling continuously. The basic story line is that Carl and Madeleine are supposed to be at home under the care of a babysitter, while Madeleine's parents go to a pond party, but the inseparable pair decide that they would rather play in the snow. It is funny and maybe also a tad frustrating that both the babysitter and Madeleine's parents are really rather clueless. The babysitter is so enthralled with her television program that Carl and Madeleine can easily slip by her and out of the house for some winter fun, and the parents also don't even seem to realise that their daughter and their Rottweiler have somehow shown up at their own pond party. I think that my favourite two scenes are when Carl nabs the hotdogs from a hotdog vendor as a snack, and right at the end, when Carl and Madeleine retrieve the carrot nose from the snowman and give it to the bunny rabbit (one reviewer thought that the hotdog nabbing scene was a terrible thing to show, with a bad message, but come on, dogs do like to nab food, and Rottweilers, at least all of the Rottweilers I have known, are champion and ingenious food nabbers, and we honestly do not need heavy messages and morals with every children's book).There is a bit more dialogue in this book, but still, it is the wonderful illustrations that basically tell the story. And what illustrations!! Alexandra Day has really captured the essence of Rottweiler cuteness, from their bouncing strides to their floppy, fly-away ears when they are running (our Rottweilers used to look exactly like that, and we used to call their ears Fliegerohren, flyer or pilot ears in English). I would recommend this book to anyone who likes dogs and winter scenes; the combination is simply magical and made me wish that I was Madeleine's age again and could enjoy winter fun with a lovable and playful canine companion.