WELCOME BACK, SUN

A little girl who lives ``wedged deep in a narrow mountain valley'' far in the north describes the weary months Norwegians call ``murketiden''—``the murky time'' when the sun has disappeared—and the joyful March day when she and her parents make the steep climb to glimpse its first reappearance. Emberley captures the effect of the darkness on these villagers with unusual sensitivity, touching on the hunger for sunshine that most people hold off until Christmas but that affects even patient, stoical Papa before spring; the eager trek up Mount Gausta to find the glorious explosion of ``brilliance [that] flashes off snow and ice'' makes a tellingly dramatic conclusion. Emberley's beautifully composed illustrations, with expressive, delicately limned characters that recall Lena Anderson's, are especially fine. A perfect antidote to a dreary winter week. (Picture book. 4-8)