Daylight is something to celebrate in 'The Shortest Day'

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We've moved past the shortest day of the year – Dec. 21 – and, now, the days are getting longer. For more than 40 years, people have read and performed Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" to commemorate the winter solstice. In 2019, that poem was turned into a children's book, illustrated by Carson Ellis. In their collaboration, the two hoped to convey a story about light's triumph over darkness year after year. In today's episode, Cooper and Ellis join NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation about how the project came together, including the inspiration they took from their communication via letters – and from Pieter Brugel's paintings.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Ampier's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. It's only getting brighter from here.
0:06.9	We are on the other side of the winter solstice, and so every day will be a little longer, a little bit brighter,
0:12.9	until, of course, we get past summer and start it all over again and barrel towards the shortest day of the year.
0:18.6	Writer Susan Cooper and illustrator Carson Ellis have a 2019 kid's book titled
0:22.9	Just That, The Shortest Day.
0:25.2	NPR producer Samantha Balaban got them together to talk about making the book, which we aired
0:29.9	during this most recent winter solstice.
0:32.5	After the break, NPR Scott Simon sets it up, and then Cooper and Ellis take it from there.
0:37.5	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:42.3	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:46.8	On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:52.6	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:56.4	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:02.1	So the shortest day came and the year died.
1:06.4	And everywhere down the centuries of the snow white world came people singing, dancing to drive the dark away.
1:13.7	Today, December 21st, is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
1:19.1	They lighted candles in the winter trees. They hung their homes with evergreen.
1:24.3	They burned beseeching fires all night long to keep the year alive.
1:28.7	For more than 40 years, people have been reading and performing Susan Cooper's poem the
1:33.4	shortest day to celebrate the winter solstice.
1:37.1	And when the New Year's sunshine blazed awake, they shouted, reveling.
1:42.0	Down all the frosty ages, you can hear them, echoing behind us.
	...

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