A Book Review of Twelve Kinds of Ice

 

“Twelve kinds of ice are carved into twenty vignettes, each exulting the beauty of ice and ice skating that comes year after year.”  -- from the inside cover of Twelve Kinds of Ice

Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed is a delightful little book.  At 64 small pages, the book is a brief read, but it’s big on charm.  I liked it for several reasons.  The book is full of simple pencil drawings that are as sharp and clear as the ice they portray.  And as the quote from the cover states, the types of ice are woven into little vignettes of words – written in simple, winsome ways.  A record of a family’s memories.

Which is probably the biggest reason why I enjoyed the book – because it evokes lots of my own sweet memories of ice.  Boys – big and little – skating by the light of the moon on the farm pond.  The sound of blades slicing the ice.  Hockey rules nailed to the basement wall.  Coats and gloves and skate guards littering the basement floor.  Boys rushing out to the pond, as soon as the snow stops, to begin cleaning it off . . . again.  Runs to get skates sharpened or to replace outgrown skates or to buy another bag of pucks.  The laughter of skating parties with cocoa and snacks and Christmas lights strung in the springhouse. 

Who knew there could be so much joy packed into such a simple thing as ice?