The Snow Theater

From Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Ryoji Arai comes a gorgeous picture book about a child learning to cope with making mistakes, while having a magical experience in the wild, beautiful snow. After accidentally ripping the pages of his father’s favorite book, a pensive, heavy-hearted boy leaves his cozy, warm house to ski through the snow. There, in the quiet and the cold, he stumbles upon a small stage that’s all lit up—a tiny snow theater, with tiny snow people and tiny ballerinas—that soon transforms into a large snow theater, presided over by the majestic snow queen. As the boy joins the chorus of snow children, the snow queen lifts up her arms and snow falls and falls and falls, until all the boy can see is white—a snowstorm! And it’s at that precise moment that the boy’s father, who let his son go off alone but never lost track of him, is there to take his hand as they return home together. Originally published in Japan and written and illustrated by one of the country’s most important picture book makers, The Snow Theater is a quietly enchanting tale about the wild beauty of nature, the powers of the imagination, and the unconditional love of a parent for their child.

About the Author :
Ryoji Arai was born in Yamagata, Japan, in 1956. He has an illustrative style all his own: bold, mischievous, and unpredictable. Arai studied art at Nippon University. His art is at once genuine and truly poetic, encouraging children to paint and to tell their own stories. He took the Japanese picture book world by storm in the 1990s. Since then, he has won multiple awards, including the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2005, and was Japan’s nominee for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2022. David Boyd is an associate professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the translator of adult fiction by Izumi Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, and Kanoko Okamoto, among others, as well as the beloved Chirri & Chirra picture book series published by Enchanted Lion. His translations have appeared in Monkey Business International, Granta, and Words Without Borders, among other publications.

Review :
One of BookPage’s Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2025! STARRED REVIEW! ? "Arai’s charming illustrations dazzle. Intentionally naïve and expressionistic, they pair thick, impasto-like color with delicately rendered performers—singing, dancing, even snowboarding… Conflict, enchantment, resolution, solace—all interweave in this beautifully illustrated tale." —Kirkus Reviews “Meet Ryoji Arai, an amazing artist from Japan... Dreamlike, the book is about the snow, nature, the power of imagination, and even some SEL themes.” “As the year wraps up, beloved Japanese picture book illustrator and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award-winner Ryoji Arai’s unforgettable art is bound to make a splash with The Snow Theater. Translated by David Boyd, this picture book observes the fantastic, wondrous adventure of a little boy who finds a tiny, magical theater in the snow.” Can snow also be the coming-together of every color of light? ... Thicker here, thinner there, it's telling the shape of the land, like paper sculpted by wind, drawn in crayon-like dreamy strokes, and set to the the sound of the boy's own swooshing journey... In Ryoji Arai's story, words and pictures don't always walk side by side; often, the pictures go first. Maybe this too is The Snow Theater's invitation: to walk deeper into the snow, look closer into every shifting shade of light, and to feel before we try to speak.