At the Back of the North Wind is one of the masterpieces of George MacDonald's fantasy literature. It is a must-read to children because of its spiritual depth and wonderfully imaginative story. It teaches children timeless Christian principles to shape and engrave in their minds the goodness of God and love of our infinite heavenly Father.

Wikipedia summarizes the story as follows: “The book tells the story of a young boy named Diamond. He is a very sweet little boy who makes joy everywhere he goes. He fights despair and gloom and brings peace to his family. One night, as he is trying to sleep, Diamond repeatedly plugs up a hole in the loft (also his bedroom) wall to stop the wind from blowing in. However, he soon finds out that this is stopping the North Wind from seeing through her window. Diamond befriends her, and North Wind lets him fly with her, taking him on several adventures. Though the North Wind does good deeds and helps people, she also does seemingly terrible things. On one of her assignments, she must sink a ship. Yet everything she does that seems bad leads to something good. The North Wind seems to be a representation of Pain and Death working according to God's will for something good.”

I read it out loud to my children last year (when they were seven and eight years old), using a free online edition. I read one chapter every morning as my kids were eating breakfast. I also read sometimes one chapter at night as I tucked my kids into bed because my kids think it is so fun to stay up later than their bedtime for me to read to them.  My daughters also sing the song from the movie Frozen 2, “All is Found” that describes the North Wind.

My favorite quote and highlight from the book is shown below, and notable comments about At the Back of the North Wind from Madeleine L’Engle, C.S. Lewis, and others follow.

Dan MacDonald, editor of this website’s Raiders of the Lost Editions blog, recommends this vintage yet affordable edition for its wonderful illustrations by Jesse Wilcox Smith:

To view many of Smith’s illustrations, and some other delightful ones from an edition of this same wonderful novel illustrated by Maria Kirk, see At the Back of the North Wind: Contrasting Illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith and Maria L. Kirk.

An adaption that might be more suitable for younger children is described here.