Fair warning. If you pick up Alia’s Snow Day With the Angels by Alida Hall to read to your child tonight, you may need a moment at the end.
Not because it is sad. It is not sad. It is one of the most joyful children’s books published this year.
But it is also a book about a child watching two beloved friends drift back up into a glowing winter sky and pressing her mitten to her heart. And if you have ever said goodbye to someone you love and felt something small but permanent settle inside you in the space they left, that page is going to find you.
Alida Hall dedicated this book to her late mother, Juana, and her late husband, Thomas. She does not write about loss inside the story. She writes about a little girl playing in the snow with angels. But the love that shaped Hall as a person is present in every line. Children sense it as magic. Adults may sense something else alongside it.
The story itself is genuinely delightful. Alia wakes up to a snow day, steps outside, and is visited by two angels who tell her that only children with pure hearts can see them. They take her into a sparkling forest where deer and rabbits welcome them, where snowflakes lift and dance at a word, and where the three of them build the tallest snow castle anyone has ever seen. The writing is gentle and musical. The 26 illustrations carry the warmth of a world that genuinely loves its main character.
And then the sky glows orange and gold, and it is time to say goodbye.
The angels tell Alia that every snowflake carries their love and will remind her of them always. She smiles through her fading tears, knowing that this was the most magical moment of her life.
That is not a sad ending. But it is a true one. And children deserve true endings sometimes.
Alia’s Snow Day With the Angels is available now on Amazon and at Alida Hall’s official author website. Highly recommended. Keep a tissue nearby just in case.
