Jane Yolen, through her lyrical telling of a quiet walk in the woods searching for an owl, and John Schoenherr, through his beautiful watercolor washes, show us that winter can be a time for simple, soulful adventure. Owl Moon won the 1988 Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished picture book for children published the previous year. A child, in this story, somewhere between three and seven, so bundled for warmth in the winter woods that one cannot tell its gender, goes owling with its father, something this child has been waiting to be old enough to do for a long, long time.

I had to run … to keep up
and my short, round shadow
bumped against me.

But I never called out.
If you go owling
you have to be quiet...

Deep in the woods, Father calls the owl:
Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-whoooooo….

But there was no answer...
I was not disappointed …
sometimes there’s an owl,
and sometimes there isn’t.

In full-page illustrations, Schoenherr captures the melancholy of a soft winter night lit by a translucent moon. He captures longing: Portrayed as longing to see an owl, but conveying all human longing. Child imitates father, walking on and on through the shadows, not saying a word, bearing the cold, hoping, hoping … then finally the owl comes. With broad brushstrokes, Schoenherr catches the powerful wings, the detail of dusky feathers, an owl’s view from a tree branch looking down on its human callers.

We watched silently
with heat in our mouths,
the heat of all those words
we had not spoken.

In the final illustration, Schoenherr shows the vastness of winter fields, as father carries child out of the woods toward home.

Schoenherr illustrated another classic book about a long walk through winter: Julie of the Wolves, written by Jean Craighead George. This one is about Myax (Julie), a 13-year-old Inuit girl who travels from danger to safety across Alaskan tundra, surviving by joining a wolf pack. In 1973, Julie won the prestigious John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished book for older children by an American author. Julie is only one of George’s many books about young people in nature.