Ollie's Ski Trip: Mini Edition

This book has it all, a great story, stunning illustrations, good and bad presented in a way that that is educational, not harsh. Our family LOVES Elsa Beskow!!!

Ollie goes off an a ski trip and meets a few strange characters. King Winter has trouble with a witch and its all rather good fun in a simple way

We love all of her books and buy them 1 at a time as we can afford them. In an age of big in your face pop up books and childrens books that make your eyes hurt these books are a wonderful find. As always the illustrations are beautiful - I read all the reviews first but few had actual specifics about the actual invdividual stories of her books, so that's what I've done here. I hope it helps others know what wonderful books they are. I wish they were easier to find in Canada. This story is about Ollie - his father gets him a pair of skis for his 6th birthday. He waited longingly for winter to come. He was so excited when it did that he wanted to go use his skis. His mum made sure he ate his porridge and was dressed warmly before he headed out. He came across Jack Frost who takes him to King Winters castle. They come across Mrs. Thaw who is trying to melt the snow but Jack Frost chases her off and breathes on everything to make it all frozen again. They go off to king winters castle which is beautiful and built of polished ice. He meets king winter and gets to see people sitting around the fire working away happily making ski boots and women knitting thick socks. In another room he sees girls knitting ski mitts and embroidering and in a big workshop some boys were building skis and tobggans and sledges and skate blades. They were trying to finish them all for everyone before Christmas. When they all took a break, Ollie gets to go outside and ski, skate and built snowmen and big snowcastles and have a huge snowball fight. When the break was over the children went back inside and Jack Frost offered to take Ollie home, so they harnessed a reindeer and had him pull them on Ollie's skis. Jack Frost said goodbye at the edge of the forest. Come Christmas morning Ollie was so excited to find a pair of magnificent skates for himself and a toboggan for his little brother. He knew at once Jack Frost had paid him a visit! He used his skates nearly every day that winter and they tried to get Mrs. Thaw to not come in the spring but she came and melted all the snow. Then spring came driving up in her airy carriage, and curtsied to Mrs. Thaw and Ollie decided he really liked Mrs. Thaw after all. Wonderful story!

Ollie gets his first pair of skiis and uses them in the woods near his home somewhere in Scandanavia. He meets up with Jack-Frost, and some other colorful characters. The art-work is of a style and beauty long missing in childrens' books. Ms. Beskow's drawings are from an earlier period in children's literature, and are quite nostaligic for those of us raised with our grandparent's childrens' books.