Welcome Back, Sun

Both an enlightening glimpse of another culture and a lyrical, heartwarming story, this volume also stunningly showcases Emberley's ( The Present ; Ruby ) elegant, emotion-charged art. The tale takes place in Norway during murketiden , the ``murky time'' between September and March when the sun disappears behind the mountains. Emberley's likable young narrator recalls a legend about another girl in another murketiden , who could no longer bear the darkness and trekked through the mountains until she found the long-lost sun and led it back into the valley. The story stokes the narrator's imagination during the oppressive darkness, until she finally persuades her parents that it's time to climb the same mountain, find the sun and ``show it the way home''--a local custom, but Emberley allows his heroine (and the reader) to believe that her adventure has indeed brought the sun. Emberley's pictures deftly convey the story's ambience. In addition to the traditional Norwegian garb of his characters, he renders the twilit gloaming of the murketiden , delicately contrasting shadowy landscapes and interiors with the first light of spring. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)