When Will It Snow? is set in Porter Corners, NY, where I live "up on the mountain". The opening scene is of the village, slightly rearranged to fit on the pages. This is how the book starts:

"The north country was waiting for winter to begin. The cold wind had returned, and for days now thick clouds filled the sky. The clouds moved slowly over the great forests, but so far, not a single snowflake had fallen. Even high on the hills the ground was still bare.
Winter was late, and as another gray morning began, people wondered, when will it snow?

"...a sweet, embracing book little ones will understand." The New York Times Book Review, November 12, 1995

This is a work of fiction. I invented the two human characters Robin, who is ready for snow, and his mom. But the animals, the mouse, the snowshoe hare, and the three-legged fox are all real animals in my woods. And they are waiting and preparing for snow, too.
There are a lot of fox in my woods, mostly gray fox. Usually I only see their tracks. But this fox was different. I first saw her in a snowstorm eating bird seed that had fallen from the feeder in front of my house.Then she curled up on the snow and went to sleep. Fox will eat anything, but bird seed is not a very substantial diet for a fox. I knew she would probably starve that winter if I didn't help, so I began to throw a handful of dog food (fox are of the dog family) on the snow each night, and the fox would come around and eat.
I never tried to make a pet of her, but she came so regularly that I invited my friends over to watch. We would usually be eating dinner, when she would steal out of the woods, silent as a ghost on the snow. Sometimes other foxes would come too.
Here are some sketches I did for the book.This is Robin looking disgusted that it hasn't snowed.

This is a small spruce by my house during the first snow. At Christmas we put real candles on this tree and sing carols around it.

This snowplow truck appears in the opening illustration. I like to have pictures of the things I am drawing in front of me. I don't copy them exactly, but they do help.
In some ways I am just like Robin. When November comes, I am watching for snow.