Lady Winter (“A perfect world would be cold and white every day of the year”) knits a magical white blanket to ensure that Sister Spring will never awaken from her seasonal slumber. A troubled Robin calls on his woodland friends to help wake Sister Spring, but Bear, Caterpillar, Maple Tree, Ladybug, and Skunk all fail. Robin finally flies to Mother Sun for some morning light, which awakens Sister Spring, but the closeness to Mother Sun turns Robin’s “plain brown belly into a bright orange-red.” Ceccoli’s romanticized acrylic paintings are not as edgily effective as those in The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum (2008), and the visual characterizations don’t enforce the potential robustness of the story. Still, this attractive book will attract adult readers who might want to include it in seasonal story hours. This original how-and-why story has the repetitive structure of a folktale, although Ouellet’s tale is not based in traditional lore. Preschool-Grade 2. --Janice Del Negro