Painted Skies

Two friends, Leslie and Oolipika, are out in the middle of the night laying in the cold snow and chatting. Then they look up: the sky is green! They keep looking and they see pink lights adding to the green, like big ribbons. They are so impressed that Leslie gets a little scared and starts whistling. Oolipika tells her to be quiet, otherwise the spirits will hear them. Instead, she moves her fingernails from one hand onto the other, making a clicking sound. Leslie is even more afraid, but her friend reassures her that as long as they don’t whistle, they are safe. These spirits, adds Oolipika, are called “Aqsrniit”, Northern Lights. The colors in the sky look like people running, and her grandma used to say that it’s the spirits of the dead ones, play a ball-like game. If they hear a whistle, they get closer and the ball may hit someone in the head. The clicking sound lets them know that they need to stay away. So Leslie starts making the same clicking sound as well.

This book was interesting because I had never heard of colors in the sky or spirits dancing in them.