Magic of the season: 'Merry and Hark' explores Christmas through the eyes of a tiny owl

“Merry and Hark: A Christmas Story” is a children’s picture book with a sweet, fresh take on the holiday and with new players.

The imaginative, original story is by April Genevieve Tucholke with magical, wispy illustrations by Rebecca Santo. The Christmas theme surfaces in an unexpected way.

The book’s main character is Merry, a Northern saw-whet owl. In a major supporting role is a Norway spruce named Hark.

Fist-sized Merry hunts at dusk. A free spirit, she says, “I like the feel of the wind as I fly across the stars. I like the way the creamy moonlight makes my feathers shimmer and shine.”

Merry introduces the many types of trees in her conifer forest — Eastern hemlock; balsam fir; white and red pine; and white, black, red and Norway spruce.

Hark provides Merry with a warm home in a hole in her trunk. And Hark comforts Merry, whispering stories to her until she falls asleep.

Merry shares with readers some things of other, bigger relatives — the great gray owl, the Northern hawk owl, the great horned owl, the snowy owl and the barn owl.

Despite her size, Merry is thinking big thoughts; she wants to go on a grand adventure. She does, though not as young readers might anticipate.

Humans cut down Hark, with Merry inside the hole, transporting them on a flatbed truck to the big city. At night, the city’s noises jolt Merry.

She’s lonely, hungry, out of sorts.

Then a human (a female of the species) rescues Merry from her hole, bringing her to her apartment, The book describes it as “a snug human den nearby.” She feeds Merry frozen mice and bathes her in a bowl.

Magic of the season: 'Merry and Hark' explores Christmas through the eyes of a tiny owl

Enter the delayed yuletide theme: From the apartment’s window Merry can see people string Christmas lights around Hark “… until she shines like a night sky full of stars. She is beautiful.”

Merry is happy for Hark having a new home in the city, though not for herself.

The kind human rescuer takes Merry back to the forest Merry longs for.

The rescuer conveys to readers what Merry, in spite of her smallness, represents. She is strong, brave, full of hope and strength. In short, a survivor. And the rescuer tells Merry: “You are a reminder of the beauty of the forest, and all the wild, free creatures who live there.”

The author, Tucholke, said in a phone interview that the book’s story was inspired by a newspaper article in November 2020 about a Northern saw-whet owl found nesting inside New York’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

“The owl was treated at a wildlife center and then was released into the wild. The story spread like wildfire,” she said.

That real owl’s survival and rescue in the Big Apple seemed to resonate with many people, Tucholke recalled.

Tucholke, who grew up on a farm in eastern South Dakota, now lives in Savannah, Georgia.

She loves all owls, adding that “many people come to me to tell me they see owls before important life events. It seems to be a universal theme. … The book is very much pro-nature. I love trees so much and nature so much.”

“Merry and Hark” will appeal to young readers, young adults and even older adults.

Santo, the illustrator, wrote in an email that “Merry and Hark” posed several challenges.

“A creative challenge that I faced,” Santo said, “was having confidence in my creative decisions. Since this was my first picture book, I was only out of art school for a little over a year at the time, I really wanted to avoid making mistakes. It was definitely daunting in the beginning, but everyone on the team was so incredibly kind and supportive, and their confidence in me gave me confidence in myself as a professional.”

Santo said she always strives to inject a sense of magic or whimsy in her illustrations.

Much of the interpretation in creating the illustrations for “Merry and Hark” was left to Santo. When she shared each new illustration she sketched, she received helpful feedback, “with notes to push the magic even further. It felt very natural communicating ideas to each other and making improvements …”

She appreciated the collaboration. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio and a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Santo currently lives in Sweden.