Chickadee brings back the sun ... ( )

The Longest Night is a story about the long and cold winter. The animals in the forest try to find the most suitable out of all of them to find the sun. Wind disappoints them all when he lets them know that the only one that can do it is chickadee. This is a very soothing story. I read it with my daughter before bed and he words and the sounds in the book relaxed her and eased her into her sleep. A very nice story to read with pretty much all ages. ( )

Young Reader Reaction: At first our daughter thought this "too babyish" for her. Then, as we kept reading, she settled in and snuggled close. When we finished reading, she picked up the book, looked at the illustrations slowly, and read it again.

Adult Reader Reaction: This is a beautiful book - both words and images. It is not a rhyming story, but it has a soothing lyric like a lullaby. The colors exude the chill of the season, too.

Pros: Soothing verse and beautiful illustrations make this a perfect bedtime story for a cold winter's night.

To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.

The Longest Night, by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ted Lewin (2009)

“The snow lies deep.

The night is long and long.

The stars are ice, the moon a frost,

and all the world is still.”

So opens this quiet, magical celebration of the winter solstice. Bauer and Lewin match prose and paintings in a luminous portrayal of the long, cold night and animals awaiting the return of the sun. The wind is the wise one, “the bitter wind” who knows what the animals do not. Crow, “the night-dark crow” is the first to boast that he is the one, the one to bring back the sun, using his strong wings to reach the sun, his strong beak to poke him awake. “Not you,” sighs the wind. “Not you.” And so Wind denies “the mighty moose” with “antlers strong enough to scoop up the sun and bring it home” and the “clever fox” with a keen nose to find the sun’s hiding spot. When small Chickadee asks who will bring back the sun, Wind says, “You … only you.” The larger animals jeer, yet Chickadee does “what chickadees do best.” She sings her ”dee-dee-dee,” … and the sun smiles.

This is the essence of an Everybody book, a picture book to be enjoyed by all ages. On the surface, young children will love the repetition of the wind’s “sha” calls and the animals’ boasts. Older children and adults will admire Lewin’s realistic depictions of the night world beneath a full moon’s glow. They will find the deeper meaning in the themes of darkness and light, that we need both in our world, for they reflect one another. I love the repetitious language: “long and long”, “moose, the mighty moose”, “fox, the clever fox” which lends emphasis to important points. Lewin’s paintings are amazing in their detail and in the feelings they generate: of warmth despite the coldness of winter and night; of the fox’s face which looks clever and sly; of the sleeping bear, which could almost be a dark jumble of forested boulders, and the “velvet mice” curled together beneath the bear’s shadow. I read this book every winter solstice, share it with family and friends and think about the comfort of long winter nights to read and think and write, cuddle up by a fire, and wait for spring. ( )

Cute book but unsure of the purpose behind the book. Beautiful imagery and descriptive words. ( )