“If you want to see a caribou, / you must go to a place where the caribou live.” The narrator of this quiet encounter with the natural world continues in the second person, giving advice on just what to do and where to go to see a caribou. Reading like a love poem to the northernmost regions of Lake Superior, this serene picture book provides keen sensory descriptions: “You stoop under branches / draped with old-man’s-beard lichen” and “the ground [is] spongy with feather moss.” Artist Jim Meyer’s woodcuts are crisp and bold, colored in with a lush woodsy palate. A brief author’s note explains how scarce the caribou are becoming, as well as a bit about their history on the Canadian shores of Lake Superior. (Ages 4–8)

If you really want to see a woodland caribou, you might try going to a place forgotten by time. It should be a hushed place, with perhaps rocky green hills and blue water, home to loons and beaver, lichen and yellow buttercups. With every step, this gentle journey brings us to a deeper and more unique connection with nature. Phyllis Root’s mesmerizing text, together with Jim Meyer’s outstanding woodblock prints, makes the very heart of the forest come alive and reveals that if you are patient and quiet, sometimes what you are seeking will, in the end, find you.