Here Is the Artic Winter: Here Is the Arctic Winter

My 5 year old son loves this book series. The illustrations are beautiful and the repetitive text really brings home the information.

Madeline Dumphy aided by the illustrations of Alan James Robinson deftly presents the quiet and austere beauty found in the frigid arctic in her book Here Is the Arctic Winter. Young children will be mesmerized by the various animals to be found in the arctic.I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to present values to children at a very young age. Among the values which should be introduced is the positive view of nature and beauty. Any book that helps children understand and appreciate the beauty of nature should be praised and certainly Here Is the Arctic Winter is among those.The prose is told as a cumulative story with each page adding another line to the verse. Those familiar with some basic principles of reading instruction will recognize the value of this kind of tale. An added bonus to this is children learn such names of animals as caribou, narwhal and ptarmigan. The prose expresses the quiet beauty of the arctic during its long snow covered night. We can well imagine the howl of the wolf breaking the silence. "Here are the wolveswho howl at the skythat is dark day and night,where the sun does not risein this cold world of white:Here is the Arctic winter"Robinson's illustrations are gorgeous and skillfully match the prose provided by Madeline Dumphy. I love the image of the polar bear walking through the fields of snow and ice. Parents will enjoy pointing out the various animals seen on the pages of this book.I gladly recommend this book as a gift to a child as a way of encouraging an appreciation and love of nature.

I would very highly recommend Here is the Arctic Winter for kids up to 8-9 years old. Her haunting, cyclical verse and the beautiful illustrations create a tale my children demand to hear over and over. Actually, all of the books in Ms. Dunphy's "Here Is..." series are excellent --check them out!