From snowy days to hibernating animals, these stories take place during the winter season. We’ve included selections for adults, teens, and kids.
When a new lead breaks in the cold case that has long haunted Swedish Detective Inspector Embla Nyström, the truth she’s been seeking about her best friend’s disappearance may finally be revealed—if it doesn’t kill her first.
The Book of Hygge by Louisa Thomsen Brits
A full-color lifestyle guide to the centuries-old Danish art of togetherness and contentment shares advice for incorporating hygge practices into everyday life, from making coffee together at breakfast and sharing meals to sitting beside a fire or snuggling into bed with a good book.
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
When a small Ojibwa community in the far north loses power at the beginning of the winter, residents do not realize it is because society in the south is failing, and when people arrive from the south, harsh conditions take their toll.
Four people converge on a house in Cornwall for Christmas, in a story that depicts in wry observations a bleak, post-truth era rooted in history, memory, art, and laughter at a time of endurance and survival.
Presents an imaginative tale rooted in early nineteenth-century German Romanticism that explores parallels between the origin legend of the famous Nutcracker with the life of Drosselmeier, the toymaker who carves him.
A Year of Gingerbread Houses by Kristine Samuell
Provides step-by-step instructions for six gingerbread house projects, including a haunted hideaway, a winter wonderland, and a birthday picnic, with project templates; advice on planning, baking, and assembling houses; and decorating tips.
In Winterlust, a farmer painstakingly photographs five thousand snowflakes, each one dramatically different from the next. Indigenous peoples thrive on frozen terrain, where famous explorers perish. Icicles reach deep underwater, then explode. Rooms warmed by crackling fires fill with scents of cinnamon, cloves, and pine. Skis carve into powdery slopes, and iceboats traverse glacial lakes.
81 Days Below Zero by Brian Murphy
Documents the story of the only surviving crew member of a World War II B-24 crash on a remote mountain near the Arctic Circle, tracing how his determination and luck enabled him to endure 12 weeks in the Yukon’s brutal landscape.
Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore
Dylan dreams of sailing across the ocean to France with her mother. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won’t make her stand out, a place where she might feel she belongs. When she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey: a road trip across the Australian outback in the care of her mother’s grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they pass through remote towns further and further from the water Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond: a bond that will be broken when Pat leaves Dylan with a family she has never known.
The Starlight Claim by Tim Wynne-Jones
Haunted by nightmares after the disappearance of his best friend, Nate is chased from his home by three escaped prisoners before finding his survival skills tested by a blizzard in the frigid wilderness and devastating family secrets.
The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett
Longing to escape and prove herself a scholar, Ekata unexpectedly inherits a dukedom when the rest of her family succumbs to a bizarre sleeping sickness, forcing her to learn new skills in diplomacy, war and love.
What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson
A boy living in harsh poverty during a brutal Idaho winter searches for the drug money that sent his father to prison to keep his brother out of foster care, while a teen under the control of a merciless father makes a wrenching choice to help the brothers survive.
When a massive ice storm traps Hannah and her family in a remote cabin, she must take the four family dogs on a dogsled ride to find help before they all freeze to death in the wilderness.
Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore
On an island cursed by eternal winter, Sylvi agrees to run a late-season haul for a smuggler, but when they reach their destination, Sylvi must decide if she can abandon her cherished solitude and anonymity–and the favor of the icy spirit Winter–to join with the rebels.
Rumored to be a witch, Nora Walker attempts to uncover the truth about a boy she discovers in the woods who went missing weeks ago during a brutal winter storm, only to learn that he wasn’t the only one to go missing all those weeks ago.
A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos
When Ophelia, who can travel through mirrors, is betrothed to an influential member of a faraway clan, she journeys to the towering city of Citaceleste, where she realizes she has become a pawn in a dangerous political game.
A Sled for Gabo by Emma Otheguy
Gabo, shy with other children and having no sled or winter clothing, yearns to go sledding and his neighbor’s granddaughter, Isa, helps him find a way.
You’re Snug with Me by Chitra Sounder
Born deep in their frozen north den at the start of winter, two bear cubs ask what lies beyond their home and discover the secrets of the earth, their place in it and the snug safety they share with their mother.
This is a beautifully illustrated book that introduces children to the wonder of nature in winter.
Snow Globe Wishes by Erin Dealey
Hunkering down with her family in a cozy blanket fort on the night of the worst snowstorm of the year, a little girl makes a wish on a snow globe before waking up to a winter wonderland of outside fun.
Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Cathy Camper
Walking to her grandmother’s home to help make warak enab, Lina discovers many ways to hear snow, from the scrape of a shovel on a sidewalk to the quiet pats of snowman-building.
Before We Sleep by Giorgio Volpe
A red fox and a gray dormouse joyfully play in their forest home as the season begins to change from fall to winter. Soon, the dormouse must hibernate, and the friends will part. As the time for sleep nears, the fox tries to keep the dormouse awake. Sleep indeed must come, but not before the two friends have shared one last story, knowing they will be together again in the spring.
