Follow 14 fictional children as they watch the sun rise in 14 locations around the world during the solstice. From Winter Solstice at the South Pole to Summer Solstice in Norway, readers can travel the globe and celebrate with their new fictional friends.
The book introduces concepts such as hemispheres, poles, what causes summer and winter and how different countries have sunlight for differing lengths of day. Instead of being forced upon readers (who may or may not be ready for all of this learning), details are woven into the text or presented within the fact files at the start of every chapter that explains average temperate for the time of year and hours of sunlight. It is left for the reader to spot patterns such as how the sunlight hours increase as we travel from South Pole to North. This makes the book friendlier to readers who are not ready yet to spot this pattern or to understand why this is so as the short stories might be used across a wide age range.
Differing traditions and types of celebration are explored. The illustrations as well as the text bring these celebrations to life and will give readers of all ages a strong desire to travel! This would be a wonderful way in to the text, by considering questions such as fireworks versus quiet family celebration vs watching the sun rise over a stone circle. It is lovely to see this in a children’s book because the image that is presented most often to British children is that Stone Henge and it is important to set this in the context of many traditions.
Languages are explored too with a small number of words from the mother tongue of the narrator taught in each story. This is made easy for the readership by teaching the word for ‘hello’, ‘sun’ and parental terms that are relevant to the narrator. I was pleased that not everyone who lived in a country spoke that country’s main language as their mother tongue – although this was predominantly the case – and likewise a same gender couple is featured in one story.
Illustrators are matched carefully to the stories and it is apparent from reading the biographies of the illustrators that they know the traditions they are depicting. All the illustrations are beautiful and filled with joy – quiet joy and loud!
A wonderful title to explain and explore solstice that is engaging and attractive for young readers.
- Solstice by Jen Breach and 14 Global Artists is published by What On Earth Books. RRP. £15.99 (Copy of the book received as part of a promotional blog tour)
