Once Upon a Northern Night by Jean E. Pendziwol & Illus by Isabella Arsenault

Isn't this an adorable cover?! 

Did you know Isabella Arsenault is from Montreal? So pretty much local. 

Once upon a northern night

while you lay sleeping,

wrapped in a downy blanket

I painted you a picture.

The things that happen in the night...

Once upon a northern night

a mother deer led her fawn 

around the silent birch

and traced

a wandering path

on my canvas of white.

They nuzzled the sleeping garden

with memories of summer,

then wandered off

ti taste the frozen fruit

still clinging to an apple tree. 

The poor fox who just wants to play with the hares....

Once upon a norther night

deep,

deep, 

in the darkest hours,

the snowy clouds crept away

and the stars appeared--

twinkling points of light

hanging in the purple sky. 

I knew by the time you woke

the sun would have chased them away;

so I set them like diamonds

on the branches of the willow. 

The writing is so poetic. The pictures so soft and gentle. 

Dreamy and fitting for talking of the things that happen at night in the winter. 

And then

I had the moon gently kiss you

and the wind whisper...

I love you. 

I am not entirely sure who the narrator is here--the earth? The night? The world at large? 

But whatever it is, it is gentle, kind, and loving. 

And then, the awakening. 

That first morning of waking up to a snow covered world..... 

Magic! 

Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer & Illus by Ekua Holmes

This beautiful book is about the big bang. How that works as a topic for a picture is hard to imagine, but Bauer and Holmes make it work! 

Euka Holmes does the most amazing work. 

She layers paper collage for these super detailed and subtle images. 

Like woah!!

Seriously. This is a beautifully illustrated book about physics for kids. 

There was talk about this one for a Caldecott last year. That didn't happen, but it did win the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. 

The ash of those dying stars gathered into planets....

So much movement and suppressed passion in these pictures!

All of the universe was preparing and waiting for YOU. 

You took a big breath 

of the same air 

once breathed 

by woolly mammoths.

 You cried tears

 that were once salty seas. 

Your hair 

once the carbon in a leaf. 

I love this spread!!

All of us, the stuff of stars. 

Moon Song by Mildred Plew Miegs & Illus by Garth Williams

Moon Song

Zoon, zoon, cuddle and croon--             

Over the crinkling sea,

The moon man flings him a silvered net  

Fashioned of moonbeams three.

And some folk say when the net lies long

And the midnight hour is ripe;

The moon man fishes for some old song   

That fell from a sailor's pipe. 

And some folks say that he fishes the bars

Down where the dead ships lie,

Looking for lost little baby stars               

That slid from the slippery sky. 

And the waves roll out and the waves roll in

And the nodding night wind blows,

But why the moon man fishes the sea          

Only the moon man knows. 

                                                                         --Mildred Plew Miegs

                                                                                                   From: The Tall Book of Fairy Tales

Escape at Bedtime by Robert Louis Stevenson & Illus by Gyo Fujikawa

Escape at Bedtime

The lights from the parlor and kitchen shone out

Through the blinds and the windows and bars

And high overhead and all moving about, 

There were thousands of millions of stars

There ne'er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,

Nor of people in church or the park, 

As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me, 

And that glittered and winked in the dark. 

The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all, 

And the star of the sailor, and Mars,

These shone in the sky, and the pail by the all

Would be half full of water and stars.

The saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,

And they soon had me packed into bed;

But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes, 

And the stars going round in my head.