The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice

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.

This book is very educational, explaining what winter solstice is and different traditions celebrating it from around the world. I would, however, recommend it for children 6yo+ as my younger children do not understand quite a bit of it. Still a great book and will be reading it for many years!

The poem is a perfect way to talk to my grandchildren about the Winter Solstice. The pictures depicted a softness to the Winter Soltice that makes the reader feel calm and content with the changes in the weather.

I was looking for a book to address winter solstice (as opposed to traditional organized religions). Pfeffer and Reisch's, The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice delivers. Pfeffer nicely explains some solstice traditions in a simple, yet historical, context and provides some great craft projects for different ages at the end of the book. Reisch's drawings work nicely with the content. Possibly, the prose could flow a bit better; however, the pine cone bird feeder craft made up for this shortcoming with an experience that my two year old loved. I expect the other crafts will work nicely as he grows older. Santa did a good thing when he dropped off this book ;).

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.

adults were impressed by the information on the solstice and the kids loved the way it was written.

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 was our first year learning about and celebrating the winter solstice. My 7 and 9 year old kids really enjoyed this book. So did I! It is beautifully illustrated and gives just the right amount of information for kids to digest.

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

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!

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

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.

Wonderful book, very well written.