This meandering winter’s tale begins with the challenge of naming a snowman. Jenny rejects Frosty as “a stupid name” and then, after dismissing a host of others as too long, too short, too hot, or too cold, she settles on Bartholomew Hatty Fry. The middle name is a reference to the magic hat that brings the snowman to life. In a direct link to the 1969 cartoon version of Frosty, a magician appears and the snowman begins to dance around.

All of this feels like a set-up for parody or at least ongoing pastiche, but neither is delivered. Jenny and Bartholomew visit an imaginary Unicorn Planet (which looks a bit like the game Candy Land) and then hang out in Jenny’s real neighbourhood (a trailer park), where she feeds him sandwiches and reads to him.

But the plot is not very lively or interesting, and although Victoria-based writer Troy Wilson (author of Perfect Man) crafts snappy lines, it’s not enough to prevent the general meltdown of the story. Had the snowman been a stronger character, there would have been more interest in the tale and more scope for developing the theme of imagination.

The watercolour illustrations by Dean Griffiths (who also lives on Vancouver Island and who illustrated Perfect Man) are attractive and compositionally varied, although there are a few too many close-ups of Jenny’s smiling face for my liking. She’s cute, but why would other children care? More characters would have come in handy in this slight tale.