Little Mole is new in town, and he’s lonely. On his way home from school on a winter day, he rolls a snowball all the way to the bus stop. He tells it his problems and grows very attached. But when Little Mole tries to take the snowball home with him on the bus, the driver refuses and leaves without them. So Little Mole comes up with a plan: mold the snowball into a bear. Surely that will do the trick? After much effort, he finally convinces a bus driver to pick them up. The bus is warm and cozy, and Little Mole falls asleep. But we all know what happens to snowballs when they get warm… Luckily, Grandma is waiting at home, and she finds a way to return her grandson’s new friend to him.
With a classic, timeless feel and stunning illustrations, this heartwarming story of friendship and love is full of mood, atmosphere, and poignancy.
Full-color illustrations were rendered in colored pencil, pastel, pen, and compiled digitally.
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Lonely, Little Mole befriends a snowball on the way home one day. As he pushes it toward the bus stop he confides, “I just moved here. I don’t have any friends.” The bus driver tells Mole that he can’t bring a snowball on the bus. Undeterred, Little Mole shapes his new friend into a bear. When they are turned away by the second bus, Little Mole adds a backpack and his own hat. It is quite late by the time Little Mole and his friend board the third bus, and Mole falls asleep. When he wakes up, his friend is gone. Savvy readers will understand what has happened, but Little Mole’s sadness as he trudges home from the bus stop and into his grandmother’s waiting arms is very real. Mole falls asleep still thinking about his friend, and in the morning, he scrambles out of his burrow to find a snow bear waiting in the clearing. The colored pencil, pen, and pastel artwork is soft with large white expanses of snow. Little Mole should appeal to readers who like Frank Asch’s “Bear” stories—the characters share the same innocence and sense of wonder. A general purchase for all picture book collections needing more winter or friendship-themed titles.