The Elf Who Made Snow Flakes

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Sprinkle the elf has been a careless little sprite. Last spring, when
his snowflake machine broke down, instead of fixing it he lay down and
took a nap. Now it is nearly winter and Mother Nature wants him back on
the job. But before he can make a single snowflake he must first repair
the machine. He takes the rig apart and cleans each component carefully.
Then he takes a bath under a rain cloud because working on his machine
has made him very dirty. After a lot of scrubbing and polishing he is
finally ready to try the snowflake maker on a few test clouds. It works
perfectly! Mother Nature praises Sprinkle for his fine work and winter
begins.

Though this fun story does not have much of a plot, it makes up for it
by creating a tangible world of cloud-dwelling elves who work with their
hands. Lidgold provides a detailed description of Sprinkle’s
contraption and how he fixes it (the machine resembles something between
a grain combine and a pasta maker). Her appreciation of mechanical
principles lends authority to Sprinkle’s work. Chong’s
black-and-white illustrations have a retro–1950s look. Recommended.