The Northern Lights look like the sky has forgotten its usual rules. Green ribbons stretch from one horizon to the other, purple edges flicker and disappear, and a cold, dark night suddenly has more color than noon. The science is just as good as the spectacle: particles from the Sun meet gases high in Earth’s atmosphere, and oxygen and nitrogen answer with light.
Drawing from Bookroo’s collection of children’s books about the Northern Lights, our editors chose twelve that cover the thrill of staying up to see them, the science behind the colors, Arctic stories and legends, and longer adventures for independent readers. This is a small collection, so the shortlist does the sorting; follow the related topics afterward for more astronomy, night-sky, Arctic, and winter reading.
A father wakes his child, bundles them into the frost, and leads the way uphill to wait for an aurora.
An Arctic child who is tired of white crosses the tundra with her grandfather and finds blue, green, and purple overhead.
Two Ojibway sisters walk into the frozen night and practice being quiet enough to see the SkySpirits dance.
The Northern Lights sweep from space across the Arctic, gathering animals and people beneath their glow.
Woodland animals gather materials, build through the dark, and race to catch one of winter’s best sights.
Alix and her mother turn a wish to see the aurora into a real search: where should they go, when should they look, and will the clouds cooperate?
A girl named Aurora crosses the tundra and becomes part of a luminous origin story for the lights.
In 1700s Norway, Madsi follows a girl who fell from the sky toward the witch who may know why the Lights took her sister.
A train trip to see the lights in Arctic Sweden is derailed by a break-in, a deadly sound code, and an assassin.
Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and their friends head into the mountains beneath the lights to help a young troll earn his tracking crystal.
A gentle tour through snowy woods, frozen lakes, animal tracks, winter gatherings, and skies lit by stars and the aurora.
