The Friendly Snowflake

For his first foray into children's book writing, bestselling author Peck ( The Road Less Traveled ) has concocted a slender, self-conscious story. A snowflake lands on young Jenny's nose and she names it Harry. This seemingly insignificant happening causes the reflective child to ponder the concepts of chance, the soul and the interrelatedness of all things. In what often seems like a Sunday school tableau, Jenny's parents are endlessly didactic. (Her father, for instance, says, "Some questions are so big you shouldn't take anyone else's answer for them.") The reader is left with the final image of a small stream leading to a river leading to the ocean; Jenny wonders if this is like veins leading to a human heart. Don't expect youngsters to sit through this prattle more than once. Similar universal themes have been more thoughtfully hidden--and/or revealed--to better effect in other works. In his illustrative debut, Christopher Peck's delicately attractive pictures are sprinkled throughout the text. All ages.