Louhi, Witch of North Farm

This retelling of a Finnish folk tale, in which Louhi steals the sun and the moon but is frightened by Seppo, the Smith, into returning them, needs a fair degree of sophistication to listen to and even more to read. One of the characters, Vainamoinen, has the sort of name that thousands of 'read-to-yourself children will never know how to pronounce . . . they'll just skip it! But this is a very attractive book with beautiful, evocative, not over-arty, paintings of sweeping snow scenes or fresh spring meadows. The text is musical, occasionally unexpected and humorous.