Lovely feeling to this family favorite picture book. Captures all the traditional Minnesota sensibility.

This title opens up a world that many outside of the upper Midwestern United States have never experienced. The beauty, the adventure, and the anticipation of seeing unique wildlife is portrayed using beautiful artwork. This will be a hit with Boundary Waters enthusiasts!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This is about a young girl who spends a summer on the Minnesota/Canadian border and all the amazing things she encounters. Reminded me so my summers as a child on the New York/Canadian border and how that shaped me into the person I am now.

I received an electronic ARC from University of Minnesota Press through NetGalley.
Wordless book.
Owens captures the Boundary Waters area beautifully. His illustrations bring the scenes to life so readers feel they are there as well.
To begin the story, the child is obviously not enthusiastic about being there. However, there is a point when they see the fun and start to enjoy the trip. It may be difficult for younger readers to determine what happened to change the child's reactions but that is a minor issue.
This would be a terrific book to read together before heading to the Boundary Waters. It offers a taste of the natural beauty for all to enjoy.

This was a short and text-free story of the author's trip into the wilderness of the Boundary Waters area on the US-Canada border in Minnesota on the US side. Maybe now isn't the best time to release this given the Coronavirus lockdowns, but better early than never, right?

This review was embargoed until August 15th, and this is a day early, but since there have been reviews published on that execrable Goodreads indie-killer review aggregating site - the one owned by Amazon - since May this year I don't feel guilty cheating by 24 hours, especially since I'm going to be busy tomorrow. The story is very simple and tells in pure pictures about the arrival, the canoeing, the camping, and so on.

I have to say up front that this kind of thing isn't my cup of tea, so while I thought it might be interesting, what I was really looking for here was the artwork and how appealing the story made this trip appear. I know that for the author, it had to have been special, and wonderful and entrancing, otherwise why write a book about it? The problem is that for me, it never came across as that. I never felt any desire to go there, not during reading, nor after I'd read this.

When I sat and thought about it afterwards, it occurred to me that there were two reasons for that. The first was that nature was missing! I mean, yeah, it was there, but only in part. It seemed like a painted backdrop to the author's story rather than the author's story, and there were undoubtedly things that were missing, such black flies, mosquitos, ticks, horseflies, deer flies...and bears. Oh my! The wildlife shown was the cute and cuddly kind, nothing else. You know full-well there are biting flies up there unless you go very early (before May, when the weather might be the problem) or late in the season (again, weather!), but according to this telling, there were none. I don't buy it!

Obviously there's more to a vacation than the problems - there are also the joys, but this seemed dishonestly all joy and no penalty. That would be nice - thinking you could lie there and contemplate your navel, or the sky, or the babbling brook or rustling trees, or whatever, without any irritations - meditating pleasantly on the natural world, but it's not really like that, especially not if you have to keep packing up your camp site to move to the next one, and setting up and starting fires and maintaining fires and putting out fires and on and on. I guess it depends upon what trips your trigger - or in this case triggers your trips, but for me the appeal was missing.

The second problem I had was the artwork itself. It really didn't do anything for the location. It was flat and bland and for the longest time I could not figure out what the water lilies were. At first I thought they were maybe logs - that some logging was going on and these were the logs floating down the river, but that seemed a bit off. It took me a couple of pages and then a backtrack to realize they were water lilies! The perspective seemed all wrong in that first picture. The rest of the art was equally uninspiring.

I wish the author all the best in his career, but based on my reaction to this as it stands, I can't commend it as a worthy read.

Sometimes you have an impatient child who just wants to flip pages and look at the pictures, who doesn't want to wait for you to read the story. This is the book for that child because there are NO WORDS, the whole story is told in pictures.

The story is about a family of three going to the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area), a pristine wilderness area partly in Minnesota, partly in Canada. The son doesn't want to go but gradually changes his mind (the reason isn't shown, but maybe because of the things they do). They pick berries, watch the stars, see wildlife, portage canoes etc.

Other stuff: This book is recommended for readers from 3 to 10 years. The author’s somewhat stylized illustrations rely on the colors of nature and are in black pencil and digital color.

I received an ARC from University of MN Press and NetGalley. I wasn't required to write a positive review & opinions are my own. FTC 16 CFR, Pt 255: Guides Concerning Endorsements &Testimonials in Advertising.

John Owens’ “One Summer Up North”provides an exquisite visual journey into the wilderness of North America and Canada. These kinds of stories allow children to connect with the characters, learn about the environment & natural world around them, even if they’ve never been there, AND add their own perspectives to the story. During the era of Covid and increased needs for remote learning at home, parents and educators, alike, can incorporate wordless picture books in helping support the art of storytelling for young learners, including those who may struggle with literacy but are full of imagination!

My little children and I enjoyed looking through this wordless book. We have read a few books about some people canoing in the Boundary Waters area, so we had some background for this book, which helped make it come alive. We really enjoyed looking at the pictures and figuring out what the family were doing in each one. This is a beautiful book!
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

Great illustrations! My 9 year old loved reading this with me. We often go camping and up north so he really liked the story.

This advanced copy was a pleasant surprise. The setting in this book could be adjusted to one's own special wilderness place. The illustrations flow nicely giving one the option to just look and imagine or tell a story.

This wordless picture book makes me want to explore the wilderness. The illustrations on each page exude an amazing energy for each scene and experience. Alex, a character who doesn’t seem enthusiastic about camping, goes through a change as this trip with her parents progresses. I read this via NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher.

One Summer up North is a beautifully illustrated wordless book by John Owens. It follows a family on a journey through the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, canoeing and camping. This is a fantastic book to use at home or in a classroom setting to build close looking skills, and a jumping off point for independent writing/storytelling. The detail and quality of the illustrations convey the emotions being experienced by the young girl, and the depiction of the wilderness allows all that venture into the pages to experience this special place.

Many thanks to Net Galley and the University of Minnesota Press for allowing me to view a ARC.

Thanks NetGalley for the review

This was a gorgeous picture book which brought me back to childhood; driving away from the city, exploring nature with my family.

While it was reminiscent for me, I have a lot of kids I teach whom have probably never experienced this . I look forward to reading this book aloud for some contemplative writing from my middle schoolers. If I were in an elementary library, I'd add this to the collection in a heartbeat.

I will add this to Goodreads closer to the time of publication as requested by the publisher.

One Summer Up North is a wordless picture book that tells the story of the typical middle school child whose pretty sure they hate "the great outdoors". At the beginning, it's clear that Alex has been dragged on this trip by her parents, and has the weight of the world on her shoulders (even as dad carries the literal weight of the canoe on his own). It's wonderful to see the story unfold in images as Alex discovers the wonder of the world around her, and learns a thing or two about her parents along the way. There's even a few "sights unseen" in the illustrations, as various animals and insects are camouflaged throughout. I really like the impressionistic quality of Owens' illustrations, lines not quite even, which genuinely depict the imperfect beauty of nature. As a Canadian who is truly "up north" from the Boundary Waters area where this story is set, this story carries all the nostalgia and wonder of my own childhood and my plethora of camping/canoeing trips.

**I reviewed an ARC of this book on NetGalley**

#OneSummerUpNorth #NetGalley
John Owens beckons the reader in with only pictures from the first page and takes us on breathtaking canoe journey through the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada. We follow allow with a family of three enjoying the changing light of day, the millions of stars at night, the sparkling water, even the downpour while safe in their tents, the loons, dragonflies, turtles, a fox family and even a moose. At first the preteen with them is not so excited about the trip away from her friends. Before long however, she is picking berries with mom and fishing with dad. It is the type of adventure often missed in our rushed and technological world. It should not be.
The publisher recommends this book for children from 3-10. I believe that it is a book that will be enjoyed from 3 well into adulthood. It would make a great book to read while planning a trip or remembering a family trip.
This book is due to be published September 15, 2020. I was very fortunate to receive an advance copy in return for an honest review.

My seven-year-old and I read this book together. It reminded us both of the book Bee and Me, which was a favorite when we had it from the library. With the lack of written words, we were able to really talk about each picture and come up with different story lines, major and minor, as we turned each page. I think this will make a beautiful printed book and will allow outdoor loving families to rewrite the story many times.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

One Summer Up North is a wordless picture book about one family’s adventure in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northern Minnesota, a “place of wordless wonder,” according to the author. As Alex and her parents canoe through the summer in this tranquil setting of one thousand lakes, distant from humans while communing with nature, they experience the bounty of the water, the thick and wild forests, and the seemingly-endless sky itself. John Owens’ pencil-style illustrations rely on the colors of this natural world—brown, green, and blue—as the backdrop to Alex’s red hat and the family’s colorful red canoe, while capturing the serenity and vastness of this national treasure. And while it might have been nice to see Alex’s growth throughout the summer stemming from her incredible adventure (going from her seeming boredom upon arrival to eventually helping with the canoe portaging, perhaps?), this quiet but lovely story does portray a close family in tune with nature and each other for One Summer Up North.

"One Summer Up North" is a delightfully illustrated adventure in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. This wordless picture book contains colorful drawings that document a family trip through the wild forests and waters of this beautiful nature area. The illustrations encourage children to tell what they see happening in each picture: a family starting out on their trip, paddling a canoe, weathering a rainstorm, picking blueberries, observing wildlife. This is definitely a book to be shared by family members, whether they have visited the Boundary Waters or are simply living a visit there through this book.

I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This is a wordless story book. There is no need- the gorgeous illustrations tell the story on their own. At the start of the story, the child is less than enthused about spending the summer on a camping & canoing trip. In no time, he is enjoying what had to be the best summer of his life.

This picture book does a great job of telling a story without words. I love how you can see the child change her perspective from not being interested to very enthusiastic. Each found a moment to be alone with nature and time to be with each other. I'd love to go on a trip like this!