The Best Part of a Sauna

The Best Part of a Sauna is a children’s book about saunas, and unless you are of Finnish descent, that sounds like an awfully weird topic for a kids’ book. It’s like having a kids’ book about how to use a bandsaw to do woodwork.

Are kids even supposed to use those?? (bandsaws or saunas)

Well, it turns out that in Finnish culture, sauna (pronounced “sow-na” — first syllable rhyming with “how”) means something more than a hot, wooden room in a hotel or gym. And yes, kids frequently use the sauna, or as the Finnish-Americans say, “take sauna”.

The Best Part of a Sauna was written by Minnesotan Sheryl Peterson, who grew up taking sauna. For those of Finnish heritage, this book serves as a pleasant and nostalgic reminder of what sauna is about. And for children (and adults) who aren’t of Finnish lineage, this book serves as a wonderful introduction to traditional sauna.

The main character is a young child who is spending some time at the lake cabin with grandma and grandpa. In the evening, they take sauna together. The child recounts all the wonderful things about sauna, and at the end of the story, tells the reader what the best part of a sauna is — which I won’t spoil. You will have to read the book.

The Best Part of a Sauna has whimsical and colorful artwork created by Kelly Dupre. The team that created this book worked very closely to make sure that the artwork details, while stylized, had elements of realism; the trees have the right sort of leaves, and the wood stove looks like an authentic, ‘up-north’ sauna stove.

I recommend the purchase of The Best Part of a Sauna. And if you’ve never experienced the traditional method of Finnish sauna, I highly recommend that you track down a rental cabin by a lake where you can try one; it’s quite different than what you’ve experienced at the gym or hotel. Think of it this way… Saw-na is to sow-na, as a BIC lighter is to a nice campfire. Both are fire, technically speaking, but sitting around a campfire with close friends under the starry night sky is a much fuller and more profound experience than sitting around a big lighter in your basement. And so, authentic Finnish sauna can be a full experience physically, mentally, and even relationally — which might be the best part of sauna for me.

I would like to thank Raven Publishers for sending me a copy of the book. This review is based on the paperback version, but I would recommend that you pay a little extra and get the nicer, hardcover binding.