The Shortest Day

The Shortest Day marries Cooper’s renowned poem with Ellis’ gorgeous and mystical gouache illustrations to create a celebration of Yule that travels through time and place, shepherding traditions through the centuries. Even before the text begins, a symbolic grey man with the head of a sun ages and collapses to form a mountain and a setting sun while people bent with cold and work collect firewood. As the reader is transported from the past to the present, select repetition of scenes with long-ago and modern revellers, dancing forth from houses and holding hands to embrace the sun mirrors Cooper’s assertion of the link through time. The illustrations are shrouded in darkness, befitting the shortest day of the year and showcasing the beauty and power of light and those who protect it, although the grey sun man borders on the bizarre and detracts from the Christmasy feel of the remainder of the book. The depth and sophistication of Cooper’s writing is unusual in a children’s book, decreasing comprehension and requiring more effort from its audience than may be enjoyable in a leisure setting for the picture book audience.