With the first ice--a skim on a sheep pail so thin, it breaks when
touched--one family's winter begins in earnest. Next comes ice like
panes of glass. And eventually, skating ice! Take a literary skate over
field ice and streams, through sleeping orchards and beyond. The first
ice, the second ice, the third ice . . . perfect ice . . . the last ice
. . . Twelve kinds of ice are carved into twenty nostalgic vignettes,
illustrated in elegantly scratched detail by the award-winning Barbara
McClintock.