Winter Is the Worst!
by Dan Tavis; illus. by the author
Preschool    Amicus Ink    32 pp.
10/25    9798889880165    $18.99

Penguin frankly lists the many reasons why “winter is the worst” (the cold, heavy snow, slippery ice) before a few wordless spreads show the one thing the bird likes about the season: sledding with friends (two bunnies, a bear, and a deer). Tavis’s lively comic-style illustrations feature thick black outlines, an appropriately cool palette of blue hues and white, speech-bubble dialogue, and sound effects. Varied page layouts feed the humorous interplay between story and art as Penguin struggles through several winter activities (bundling up, shoveling, snowball fights) until realizing, after an exhilarating sled ride, that “maybe winter isn’t so bad after all.”

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.