Recess at 20 Below

Get ready to bundle up for Recess at 20 Below!

Ask any group of kids, ‘What do you like most about school?’ and a majority will answer, ‘Recess!’ Whether kids live in hot or cold weather, they all enjoy going outside to explore their environment with friends. But what happens when the temperature drops below zero? Or even way below zero?

Curious questions about living and playing in Alaska such as When does winter start? How do you get dressed to go outside? What does that cold feel like at 20 below? Will your tongue really freeze to metal? are answered in the new children’s book RECESS AT 20 BELOW (September 2005, Alaska Northwest Books®) by author and photographer Cindy Lou Aillaud.

Aillaud, an elementary physical education teacher, took pictures of the children and worked with them on this show-and-tell project. We see kids getting ready for recess, putting on layers of outdoor clothing, and then somebody has to go to the bathroom! Going sledding, swinging, and running around outside with frosted-up eyelashes and face masks. Photographs also capture views of a moose on the playground, the subdued light of midwinter in the subarctic, and close-ups of frosty windowpanes.

Young readers will delight with images of peers frolicking in the cold and snow during their favorite time of the school day. Teachers will be thrilled to have a kid-friendly resource about children in Alaska!

Selector’s Choice for the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People by the National Council of Social Studies and the Children’s Book Council

“Notable” status from the International Reading Association Children’s Book Awards in the Primary/Non-Fiction Category

2006-2007 Alaska Battle of the Books

2005-2006 Notable Book for Children by the Tree House Breakfast Selections

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