University of Minnesota Press has just re-released Children of the Northlights by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire. I love this book so much that I plunked down some serious cash for a first edition several years ago. It’s nice to see the new, quality edition. This is not a folktale, but rather an introduction to and celebration of Sami culture in northern Scandinavia told through the eyes of two children, Lise and Lasse. The illustrations are spectacular and draw you in as you follow the two children as they play pranks on their family, chase reindeer, play with their dogs, ski, take saunas, and stay warm while a snowstorm rages. Yes , life in the arctic is romanticized, but I love it all the same.

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