‘And finally if books could be more, give more, show more, this book would have light…
Oh, it would have the soft gold light - gold with bits of hay floating in it - that slips through the crack in the barn wall…’
The Winter Room, Gary Paulsen
The book is somewhat unusual in that there is no conflict or plot, until the last quarter of the book. The first sections are practically all setting. That seems to be the point of the book though - trying to communicate the value of natural beauty, the cycle of season and rituals of each season. The final section is thus quite successful in giving emotional weight to what could have very well amounted to a trivial breaking of ritual. The last few pages are extremely powerful; this is a children’s book which does not compromise on literary merit despite being only about 100 pages.
