Once Upon a Northern Night

Starred review from June 10, 2013
“Once upon a northern night/ while you lay sleeping,/ wrapped in a downy blanket,/ I painted you a picture,” writes Pendziwol (Marja’s Skis) at the outset of this comforting bedtime read. And paint a picture she does, taking readers through a wintry landscape as nocturnal animals explore a world covered in white. There’s an emphasis on color throughout: a “great gray owl” with “great yellow eyes” examines “the milky-white bowl of your yard,” and a fox, “in his auburn coat and long black boots,” catches two snowshoe hares frolicking in the snow. Working in mixed media, Arsenault (Virginia Wolf), however, is judicious in her use of color. Early scenes are sketched in black, gray, and white, interrupted by an occasional red apple or cluster of green pine needles. As the night wears on, she uses deeper blues and greens to visualize a frozen lake, starry sky, and the surprise of the northern lights (“Once upon a northern night/ melodies of/ green and/ pink and/ orange/ sang across the sky”). A reverent ode to the magic and wonder of an icy winter night. Ages 4–7.

Starred review from July 15, 2013
"Once upon a northern night / while you lay sleeping, / wrapped in a downy blanket, / I painted you a picture." This opening text (which begins on the title page) stages the stark scene of a boy sleeping in a bed in darkness. "It started with one tiny flake // ...until the earth was / wrapped in a downy blanket, / just like you." Each verse starts with the title line, creating a hushed, nighttime lullaby that is illustrated with soft, atmospheric, black-and-white images of all the activity that fills this quiet, snowy night. Spots of color dot the pages, demonstrating how effective and dramatic black and white can be. There are sprinkles of green pine needles, yellow eyes and beak on the owl, and the red tail of a fox. Artwork and words are skillfully balanced with descriptive phrasing: "pine trees held out prickly hands"; "a mother deer led her fawn"; "a great gray owl gazed down"; "two horseshoe hares / scampered"; "a small mouse / ...scurried along the deck / ...mounded with snowy white / like vanilla ice cream." The final verse repeats the first and completes the experience. A beautiful, lyrical celebration of northern light and night. (Picture book. 3-5)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-In a dark room, a child lies sleeping in a cozy bed, while the unnamed narrator (parent? Mother Nature?) describes the silently majestic landscape of the northern night as it unfolds beyond the child's window. Snow covers the pine trees that "[hold] out prickly hands to catch the falling flakes," nocturnal animals visit the backyard in search of food, frost coats the windows and the pond. Arsenault's full-page and double-page mixed-media illustrations (pencil, gouache, watercolor and ink) have a 1940s feel, a perfect accompaniment to the soothing tone of Pendizwol's lyrical text with its restful "Once upon a northern night" refrain. Bursts of color highlight a branch here, some red fruits there, the green of the Northern Lights, an owl's startling yellow eyes, in an otherwise black, gray, and white palette, building to the crescendo of the last spread-the lavender and white brilliance of a snow-covered panorama with a pop of orange from a fox and some deer. This is a lovely wintry bedtime story, best for sharing one-on-one.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2013
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* As a little boy sleeps soundly, wrapped up warm in bed, a winter tableau slowly builds outside, beginning with a single snowflake and culminating in a dazzling white wonderland. Pendziwol (Marja's Skis, 2007) offers a quiet poem that beautifully and lovingly tells the story of how the scene appears. Following the repeated Once upon a northern night, she gently evokes the snowfall, the animals creeping out of the woods to leave their tracks behind, the shimmering stars in the night sky, the glistening frozen branches of a willow tree, and the curlicues of frost framing the little boy's windowpane. Award-winning Arsenault's (Jane, the Fox, and Me, 2013) gorgeous, muted illustrations begin in blacks and grays but gradually expand to include bright swatches of colorgreen pine needles, the yellow eyes of an owl, the fox / in his auburn coat and long black boots and the once-smudgy landscape takes on tantalizing depth. The lilting, whispering rhythm and tone of Pendziwol's poem, along with the accompanying serene landscape, make this a perfect snuggly bedtime read-aloud. A sweet and lovely tale of waking up to a world magically transformed by winter.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)