The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice

I want to incorporate the winter solstice into our annual celebrations and this has proved as an excellent source of information for me aswell!

Wonderful book, very well written.

Wendy Pfeffer (Author) & Jesse Reisch (Illustrator) From the back cover: 'The beginning of winter is marked by the solstice, the shortest day of the year. Long ago, people grew afraid when each day had fewer hours of sunshine than the day before. Over time, they realized that one day each year the sun started moving toward them again. In lyrical prose and cozy illustrations, this book explains what the winter solstice is and how it has been observed by various cultures throughout history. Many contemporary holiday traditions were borrowed from ancient solstice celebrations.'

Great for giving an overview for our 4 year old. She really enjoyed it.

A good run down of different traditions.

Nice book, very well structured

If you are interested in your elementary age child learning about science, buy this book. The author combined the history of why it was important to know when the longest day of the year is, with the science that explains the four seasons. With pertinent illustrations it shows the position of the sun relative to the Earth during the year. Further drawn pictures show the buildings created by ancient peoples around the world, that pinpointed the longest day. Finally the last few pages have simple experiments that can be performed by the child with the parent's help using only a ruler. Any teacher of children aged 7 to 13 years old should use this book in the classroom as part of a STEM curriculum.

Interesting and colourful illustrations, informative and interesting subject and content for kids and adults alike. Had never read this previously, but took a chance as I liked the idea of having a book I read on the topic. Doesn't go super in depth, and text on pages is not a whole lot, but covers some interesting bits about the history of various cultures through the ages in their celebrations of the winter solstice. A couple parts covered in it were new to me and made me look around at the way we decorate today and think about it/appreciate it in a different way. Kiddo also enjoyed, even though the book was almost certainly written for a slightly older audience. I expect we will be reading this book for many years to come, and as kiddo grows older, they will only enjoy the book more. Nice to have something on the shelf about winter celebrations that don't centre on Santa or Jesus. We have those too, something like his helps round things out a bit. Definitely would recommend.

È diventato parte della nostra tradizione per iniziare l'inizio delle festività invernali. Un libro che spiega il solstizio d'inverno da tante prospettive in modo semplice e completo. Testo interdisciplinare in lingua inglese che abbraccia storia, geografia, astronomia, scienza e lingua inglese. Esercizi, ricette ed esperimenti a fone libro completano l'esperienza. Lo consiglio dai 6+ anni. Meraviglioso!

I love this book, as do my children and grandchildren. It is part of a series on the seasons and the “turning of the wheel.” The colorful illustrations add so much to the text! Highly recommended.

Great book with lots of information. I like that it has suggestions on different activities to celebrate it and a couple recipes too