In this seasonal treasure, Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper’s beloved poem heralds the winter solstice, illuminated by Caldecott Honoree Carson Ellis’s strikingly resonant illustrations. THE SHORTEST DAY Susan Cooper ithswrated Carson Ellis Newbery Medal winner Caldecott Honor winner HC: 978-0-7636-8698-7 » $17.99 (523.99 CAN) - Ages 4-8 32 pages As the sun sets on the shortest day of the year, early people would gather to prepare for the long night darkness 3 become a ning of the \l the hope for peace that we carry into the future. Richly illustrated by Garson Ellis with a universality that spans ahead. They built fire and lit candles, They played music, bringing their own light to ¢ while wondering if the sun would ever rise again. Written for a theatrical production that h , Susan Cooper's poem “The Shortest Day” captures the magie behind the ret ritual in itsel light, the yearning for traditions that connect us with generations that have gone before the centuries, this beautiful book evokes the joy and community found in the ongoing mystery of life when we celebrate light, thankfulness, and festivity at a time of rebirth. Welcome Yule!A Note from Susan Co ~ From the very beginning, our lives have been cyclical. At the solstices, the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in our sky, giving us the longest or the shortest day of the year: at the equinoxes, day and night are almos mmer solstice, autumn equal. Spring equinox, s equinox, winter solstice: round and round they go. If you live on a planet that circles a sun, your time is governed by the patterns of light Id. And, of course, and darkness, summer and winter, warmth and life and death. Once our forebears learned to farm, they planted and harvested at the equinoxes, but it was the solstices that caught their shrink from the attention. The extremes. They watched their day bright abundance of high summer to the bleak, dark cold of winter, and they invented rituals to make sure the light would come back again: to bring the new day, the new year, the rebirth of life. ‘The rebirth rituals have become traditions that we still celebrate, whether remember where thi rom, It’s a universal impulse, this celebration of the light as a symbol of continuing life. THE SHORTEST DAYTHE SHORTEST DAY About the Creators About the Author Susan Cooper wrote “The Shortest Day” for John Langstaff’s Christmas Revels, where it is performed annually across the country. She is the author of xy sequence The Dark Is Rising, which includes the Newbery Medal winner The Grey King, as well as many other books for children and adults. She the classic fanta lives on a salt-marsh island in Marshiield. Massachusetts Carson Ellis is the creator of the Caldecott Honor Book Du Iz Tak? and the New York Times bestseller Home. She is also the illustrator of The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket and Dillweed's Revenge: A Deadly Dose of Magic by Florence Parry Heide, and she collaborated ‘olin Meloy, on the s, Carson Ellis with her husband, best-selling Wildwood lives outside Portland, Oregon (Casouswiex Passe