The North Wind & The Sun by Philip Stead (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The North Wind & The Sun by Philip Stead Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Stead, Philip The North Wind & The Sun; written and illus. by Philip Stead. Porter/Holiday House, 2023 [48p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780823455836 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-7 yrs In Stead's retelling of Aesop's fable, three elderly sisters find themselves in the middle of a feud between the boastful, blustery North Wind and the gentle, soothing Sun. As the sisters head out to a chilly day, the North Wind takes issue with their colorful coats, challenging the Sun to see who would be able to pull the coats from the women first. The North Wind's howls topple castles and crush ships, uproot trees and destroy mountains, but the sisters only hold their coats tighter until the North Wind finally exhausts itself, crumpling into a heap. The Sun easily does what the wind could not, warming up the women with its rays until they shrug off their cold weather gear to enjoy the day. The moral might be obvious—gentle persuasion is sometimes better than brute force—but Stead brings emotional resonance with the addition of two new characters who are left sad and bitter by the North Wind then reinvigorated by the Sun, a reminder that spitefulness only breeds more spite while acceptance can work wonders. The folkloric tone is perfectly matched by Stead's familiar colored-pencil and print illustrations, featuring the Sun as a swirling, golden embodiment of wholesomeness and the North Wind as a scratchy, icy agent of chaos; the sisters' patterned patchwork coats, meanwhile, anchor the scenes with their dynamic form and palette of primary colors. Cozy and comforting, the book nearly begs to be a seasonal readers' theater event. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois