The Night Walk

Urgency, exhilaration, and anticipation make the walk’s conclusion, a luminous, lemony daybreak, all the more powerful.... A gift—here night isn’t scary; the unknown is exhilarating and the ending sunny and clear.

A pale-skinned family of four—two parents and two children—takes a blissful summer night walk into the countryside that gives way to a breathless conclusion in this picture book by Dorléans. Narrated by one of the children, the prose shines with sensory acuity as the family leaves a village behind them with a particular location in mind. "We left the road, and the path/ climbed gently out of the valley./ A train sliced through the darkness," one verso page reads as the family overlooks a landscape of fastidiously needled trees against a star-studded sky. Navy washes overlay graphite pencil and digital illustrations, with fine-lined detail so startlingly observed that readers will feel immersed in each expansive spread. Suspense builds as sparse beams of light illuminate the darkness page by page and each spread carries the family forward through the night. A graceful, perfectly paced appreciation of nature. Ages 3-7. (Apr.)

'The poetic, evocative text immerses readers in a nocturnal world; as the family finds its way through the woods... Painstaking line and graphite-pencil shading create depth and dimension for the various tree-lined, rocky, and mountainous terrains depicted along the way. At long last, the four gather atop a boulder to witness the break of dawn - that's where we were going. This hushed, intimate picture book creates a respite from the demands of the daytime world and pulls readers into a moment of pure wonder and peace.' - The Horn Book Magazine, Starred Review

'I love, love, LOVE this book. It captures everything wonderful about family night time adventures, both the hushed tone and the quiet magic of earth, air and sky.'
- Jane Yolen, author of OWL MOON