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The Shortest Day
Illustrated By Carson Ellis

In this seasonal treasure, Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper’s beloved poem heralds the winter solstice, illuminated by Caldecott Honoree Carson Ellis’s bold and festive illustrations.

As the sun set on the shortest day of the year, early people would gather to prepare for the long night ahead. They built fires and lit candles. They played music, bringing their own light to the darkness, while wondering if the sun would ever rise again.

Written for a theatrical production that has become a ritual in itself, Susan Cooper’s poem "The Shortest Day" captures the magic behind the returning of the light, the yearning for traditions that connect us with generations that have gone before — and the hope for peace that we carry into the future.

Richly illustrated by Carson Ellis with a universality that spans 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!

Pages: 32
$17.99

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Carson Ellis is the award-winning author-illustrator of the picture books Home and Du Iz Tak?, the latter of which garnered a 2017 Caldecott Honor and E.B. White Read-Aloud Award.

She has illustrated many other books, including bestsellers The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, and The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy (who happens to be her husband).

Carson was awarded silver medals from the Society of Illustrators for her work on Wildwood Imperium and on Dillweed’s Revenge by Florence Parry Heide.

Her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Poetry Magazine, among others, and she’s the ill​ustrator-in-residence for Colin’s band, The Decemberists.

Carson lives on a farm in Oregon with Colin, their two sons, one cat, two llamas, two goats, one sheep, ten chickens, a family of barn owls and an unfathomable multitude of tree frogs.

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 the classic fantasy 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 lives on a salt-marsh island in Marshfield, 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 with her husband, Colin Meloy, on the best-selling Wildwood series. Carson Ellis lives outside Portland, Oregon.

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