The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice

My kids and I love reading this book together each December!

Our family is very mixed spiritually. So we celebrate everyone’s holidays. In December, this is the book we read (over and over) to explain and celebrate the myriad of holidaze folk have come up with around the Winter Solstice.This has become our family’s (extended, into 3rd & 4rth generations now) foundational book for the Holidaze. We also read others, of course, onesvhonoring the diversity of our choices.But this is THE book/story we all look forward to reading aloud when the decorations start coming out the Saturday after Thanksgiving! Repeatedly thru the next 6-8 weeks, sometimes one reading it all, sometimes passing it to the next readrr every few pages, simetimes impromptu acting out parts of it.It works well for us all, in various small & larger gatherings of the extensive family.

This is not a read all at once book. It is best to do a little bit at a time, discuss, do hands on activities, etc. then come back the next day and do the next section. Book covers winter solstice, cultural history, various celebrations around the world, and some hands on things to do. However. the illustrations are not on par with the three other books and the book in general was not engaging or effective. The lack of clear diagrams especially at the start of the book (as done the fall book) or even when explaining why there was a shortest day of the year.... was frankly a HUGE missed opportunity to help kids understand the science. The summary of the celebrations were odd and frankly I would rather read an encyclopedia's definition than this book's. For example: St. Lucia's Day is a mix of pagan and Christian traditions yet the book played it off as only pagan. Then they showed the modern Christmas in images, but said absolutely nothing about the holiday and did not even mention its name. Why could the book not be honest that Christmas started as a pagan holiday with lots of traditions that were blended with Christian traditions (a lot like St. Lucia's Day). At the end of the book, there was no list of other cultural celebrations to research (like the fall book did). The hands on stuff at the end of the book were also not as interesting as in the fall book. I am just amazed that two books, in the same series, by the same author, would feel so different. In the fall book, I felt there was so much information that we could have a whole unit... and in the winter book, I felt like I would have to do a lot of work on my own to make a unit and that it had far less information. So overall, I was underwhelmed with the winter book.Cautions: For parents, please consider the following context before buying the book. Many of the cultural celebrations include offerings to gods, particularly sun gods. No worship of the Biblical god was mentioned and the word Christmas was not mentioned even though images were shown of that holiday. There is no Christian symbolism either, only the pagan or secular side of holidays are shown.

I purchased this book after reading reviews here at Amazon and then previewing the book at our local library. I was looking for a picture book for my 6 year old that explains the Winter Solstice as well as the human traditions with which it is associated. This book fits the bill better than anything else I found, and the delightful illustrations are a nice bonus.It may come as a surprise to many people that a book about Winter holidays does not mention Christmas or Hannukah. However, this book reaches back farther in time to festivals and celebrations based on natural phenomena that occur in the Winter (shorter days, plants losing leaves). These very early celebrations gave rise to many of the customs that we still follow (bringing evergreens into the home, giving gifts, lighting candles). I love the anthropological perspective (I'm trained in this field), and was thrilled to find the suggested activities at the end of the book for children to make simple scientific observations and hold a secular celebration of the Solstice.This book would make a wonderful classroom resource as well as a read-aloud picture book to read as a family. It may be a bit too easy a read for children at a 2nd grade reading level or higher, but I enjoy the simplicity even as an adult. I also find the secular perspective refreshing. I understand that many Christians believe the only winter holiday of importance is the celebration of Christ's birth, but this book shows how it is possible to celebrate Winter for it's own sake and to recognize why so many festivals are held in winter.

As a teacher, my school has a variety of religions. This book covers the Winter Solstice as people centuries ago acknowledge the shortest day with traditions, architecture & how they celebrated it. I would read this 2nd grade & up.

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.

A good run down of different traditions.

Nice book, very well structured

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