Here are a few choices to curl up with in front of the fireplace today.

For the little kids, when they come in from throwing snowballs, making snow angels and maybe building their first snowman (or snowwoman): “Dream Snow”by Eric Carle, because, you know, it’s Eric Carle… “The Snowy Day,” the beautiful, simple classic by Ezra Jack Keats, and “Snow”by Uri Shulevitz, about children wishing for snow in a city that only gets a few flakes that soon melt – but then, snow happens in a big way. Sound familiar?

For the bigger kids, and some adults (I’m still a Calvin and Hobbes fan), “Attack of the Deranged Monster Killer Snow Goons”by Bill Watterson. If I can get my son to sit down long enough to read, this is what he’ll grab. For a twist on a classic, try Eileen Kernaghan’s reworking of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.”

For the adults: “Snow”by Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. The story blends politics and poetry in the author’s country of Turkey.  “Dr. Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak. True, it doesn’t have the word in the title, but it always reminds me of snow. (Who can forget Julie Christie dressed in fur gliding through the snow in the sleigh. And Omar Sharif. Swoon. OK, just skip the book, and rent the movie.) A little closer to home, is “Snow Falling on Cedars”by David Guterson. The story, set in Washington state, is a murder mystery/post-war/culture clash/romance, but the real draw is Guterson’s descriptive writing.

What are your favorite books to read on a cold winter’s night?