One Spring Up North

A family canoes through the northern wilderness as it awakens to the warming season in this wordless picture-book journey through the Boundary Waters

As spring stirs the world of the Boundary Waters and wildlife awakens, let's venture out, too. Paddle the canoe into warmer days as winter melts away. Mama bears come out of hibernation, and fox kits poke their curious noses out of their dens. Birds return from their southern journeys, flirting and calling, flying overhead, gathering grasses and sticks for their nests. As we cut through cold water under the bluest of skies, fish surface and jump, turtles sun themselves on a log, and a loon makes her melancholy call. When we pull up to portage across an island and stop to camp on its shore, the majestic pines offer shelter from the sharp, chilly wind while other trees bud with new leaves and wildflowers raise their colorful petals to the soft spring light. Nature is wild here, so night in the woods might be scary, but the family is warm and safe, pulling together like the animal families all around to greet the dawning season while the waters gather and rush.

Moving with confident grace, this charming wordless picture book with its detailed, colored-pencil illustrations invites you to join this canoeing and camping family on their journey through the natural splendors of the Boundary Waters as they experience the cycle of life in the wild.

John Owens is a freelance illustrator and author of One Summer Up North and One Winter Up North, both published by the University of Minnesota Press and inspired by his travels to explore the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in all its seasons.