The Snow Theater - Ryoji Arai

The Snow Theater by Ryoji Arai, translated by David Boyd / 36-page hardback, 8.27 x 11.61 inches, published in 2025 by Enchanted Lion / ISBN 9781592704606

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From Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Ryoji Arai comes a gorgeous picture book about a child learning to accept 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.

"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

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.