Once Upon a Northern Night -- Book Review

Disclosure: Groundwood Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Do you remember the feeling of waking up to a new coat of snow when you were a child? It was always so fun and magical. Or perhaps there were new footprints in the layers of snow and it made you wonder who was there. Perhaps for me the reminder was last night when my 13-year-old nephew came into the room at 10 p.m. to tell me it was snowing. (It had been flurrying when we got home earlier in the day so I was not nearly as excited as he was.) He wanted to go out and enjoy the snowfall, but I did not let him go out in the dark (and in shorts). The magic of snow doesn't seem to go away with age. The first snowfall is always a bit magical. 

Our Backyard This Morning

The book I am sharing with you today captures a bit of that magic. The book is Once Upon a Northern Night by Jean E. Pendziwol and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. 

As I read this book I imagine the narrator is a mother (or parent). She is describing to her child the magical scene outside. She claims to have painted the white canvas, but of course it is really the snowfall. 

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The narrator describes the magical things that my have happened. The animals that may have left their marks. The deer, rabbits, owls, foxes and more. 

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The narrator also describes the Northern Lights. The colors dancing in the sky.

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The illustrations are so simple and have few colors that it seems magical to me. It captures the feeling of a snowfall or a snow covered land and the magic that happens at night. It is such a sweet book that really manages to share the magical feeling with the reader. We really like it and hope you will check it out.