On the night of the summer solstice, a little girl, her brother, and their mother climb into the hills near their home. Stopping to fish and to observe birds and moose along their trail, they picnic, nap, and celebrate the midnight sun. Written in the first person from the girl's point of view, the mostly unrhymed-verse text conveys her excitement as well as her determination not to fall asleep before midnight. However, the wording does not always sound childlike or read aloud smoothly: We shield our eyes / and point toward the sky / where an eagle soars on the wind. / Her wings whistle a song / of creatures long gone, / a story old as the midnight sun. Expressive, stylized paintings offer sweeping views of the Alaskan landscape as well as details for children to enjoy. Vanasse, who lives in Alaska, explains in an appended note that near the Arctic Circle, winter brings unrelenting weeks of darkness, summer brings many nights when the sun never sets, and summer solstice is a time for celebration.

"I'll run and / laugh and / play all night / under the midnight sun." Simple verse describes how a girl, her younger brother, and Mama take a walk through Alaskan meadows and celebrate the solstice's nighttime sun with a picnic. Landscape and wildlife are realistically and ably portrayed in the art, but, incongruously, the human figures resemble wooden puppets.

PreS-Gr 1 On the day of the solstice, a child plays with her baby brother as she waits for midnight to arrive. She shares the day with Alaskan wildlife: salmon leaping in a creek, ducklings waddling alongside a pond, and a moose and its young calf as they meander at the edge of a meadow. After a day of running, dancing, and playing, the young narrator manages to stay up past midnight to celebrate, and finally allows herself to curl up and fall asleep. Vanasse uses occasional rhyme, assonance, and alliteration to give the text a poetic feel, but never subjects readers to too much of a good thing. Some verses read more smoothly than others, but, overall, the text is fresh and vivid. Trammell's joyful, full-page color illustrations are suitably light and airy, capturing the beauty of the northern landscape and the exuberance of the girl. An author's note provides additional details. This is a good wind-down bedtime choice for children who have decided they can't (or won't) sleep. Carol L. MacKay, Camrose Public Library, Alberta, Canada