A young girl sits by the fire. This is her first night in the mountain cabin, and although her parents and her brother are asleep, she is excited and wakeful. As the fire burns to embers she listens to the sounds of the winter night: the rustle of owl’s wings, the muffled chatter of a frozen stream, the far-off howls of wolves. As she listens, she also remembers the daytime fun of making snow angels and dogsledding on the lake, and looks forward to the next day’s skiing adventure. Past and future weave in and out of the present as the girl listens and gazes out at the snowy, moonlit mountains.

This is a beautiful book. The language is simple yet lyrical, perfectly conveying the meditative mood of the story. Lawson deftly repeats the line “It’s quiet in the mountains” with variations throughout. In the first half of the book, pages with two lines of text (such as “It’s quiet in the mountains. So quiet, I hear the cold”) alternate with descriptions of daytime activities. Words and ideas are also repeated and echoed from page to page; for instance, the beating wings of the owl at night call to mind the wings of the snow angels made by day. The result is a rhythmic text that carries the reader along, linking each page verbally with the next.

Sheena Lott’s stunning watercolour illustrations match the impressionistic mood of the text. Alternating between night and daytime scenes, they capture both the joyful sunlit world and the quiet mystery of the night. Her snowy owl with his bright, startled eyes is particularly fine. This is a book for young and old, but particularly for those who love mountains, midnight, and snow.