The Longest Night

by Marion Dane Bauer and Ted Lewin

“The snow lies deep. The night is long and long. The stars are ice, the moon... read more

“The snow lies deep. The night is long and long. The stars are ice, the moon is frost, and all the world is still.” A trio of animals vow to bring back the sun: Crow will wake the sun with its beak, moose will scoop the sun up with its antlers, and fox will sniff out the sun’s hiding place with its nose and use its teeth to toss it into the sky. To each the wind sighs, “Not you. Not you.” It’s the small and insignificant chickadee that wakes the sun with its song, causing “fingers of light [to] peel back the blanket of darkness. Fingers of light grasp the edge of the world, and slowly, slowly, the sun lifts himself into the sky.” Watercolor illustrations using only three shades (two blues and one brown) adroitly capture the essence of the nighttime world of snow and dark. It is only with the sun’s reappearance in the final pages that additional colors are added to the palette, as the light of day infuses the animals’ world. (Ages 3–8)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2010

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