A tribute to the Twelve Days of Christmas with a twist; it focuses on the landscape and wildlife of Colorado. The illustrations build right along with the story adding picture on top of picture as if you were stepping back each time to encompass more in the scene. The book also has text to enhance the illustrations.

Sophie writes a letter home each of the twelve days she spends exploring the state of Colorado at Christmastime, as her cousin Zach shows her everything from a lark bunting in a blue spruce sapling to twelve skiiers gliding over snow. Includes facts about Colorado.

On each of the twelve days of her Christmas visit with her cousin Mike, Abby sends her parents a letter describing the history, geography, animals, and interesting sights of North Carolina. Uses the cumulative pattern of the traditional carol to present amusing state trivia at the end of each letter.

"The past winter was an extraordinary one, weatherwise, for most residents of the Upper Midwest. There were numerous heavy snowstorms in various sections of the area during the winter and more especially within the 75-day period beginning in mid-December and running through February. Some of these heavy snowstorms were widespread. A number of them were accompanied by strong winds and much drifting and blowing of snow resulting in blizzard or near blizzard conditions. Several were interspersed with ice storms in some localities. One of the cumulative effects of the numerous heavy snowstorms, accompanied by persistently below normal temperatures, has been the development of an unusually deep mantle of snow with a very high water content over much of the area. This has resulted in the imminence of severe flooding on many streams in the area of the Upper and Central Midwest as the spring snowmelt period begins to come to the area. The following sections and the accompanying figures and table point up the nature of the past winter's weather in the Upper Midwest and the seriousness of the flood situation that exists and is even now rapidly unfolding from the snowmelt"--Introduction

Warren Miller started skiing in 1939, and has been going downhill ever since. On his way down, he has produced almost 500 sports films and also published several books. This book, illustrated with many of Warren's original cartoons, chronicles his adventures on skis, while boating, and as he lurched through all other facets of his life.