A pleasing children’s narrative with a relevant message.
In Cobb’s latest children’s book, the moon, envious of a world he never gets to experience, makes an unusual proposition.
Mr. Moon is tired of missing out on things. While he sleeps, the world comes alive under the shining gaze of Mr. Sun. Children play, flowers blossom and people happily go about their business. Saddened by this, Mr. Moon decides to stay awake one entire day and join Mr. Sun on his journey across the sky. The jovial Mr. Sun is sympathetic toward the poor moon’s feelings, but he makes a cogent point: While he, the sun, is asleep, the moon enjoys an entirely different world. Mr. Sun never gets to see a baseball game being played late into the night or enjoy the colorful explosion of fireworks in the night sky. He never sees the nighttime animals like the raccoon or the owl, and he never sees children trick-or-treating on Halloween. He tells Mr. Moon that it’s perfectly all right by him if he stays but that he should think about what he’s told him. Not surprisingly, upon reflection, Mr. Moon agrees that it’s best if he goes to sleep so that he can be ready to greet the world and all its splendor at night. Cobb (Daniel Dinosaur, 2012) will likely delight and instruct children with this charming tale. The message is loud and clear: Although the grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence, it’s far better to love and appreciate the life one already has. Many young children may have mixed feelings about nighttime, a time of unwanted bedtime and imaginary monsters hiding in dark bedroom closets. However, Jaeger’s illustrations give the night a soft, beautiful glow, complementing Cobb’s text and simultaneously convincing both Mr. Moon and the reader that nighttime is a magical time. Her personifications of Mr. Moon and Mr. Sun are utterly delightful; perhaps the most amusing page in the book features a sad-faced Mr. Moon attempting to fruitlessly blow a dangling kite as the children are tucked in their beds. Cobb’s text is less notable but has a simple charm likely to please young readers and should be light and easy enough for children to enjoy in one sitting—perhaps even just before bedtime.
A pleasing children’s narrative with a relevant message.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463619190
Page Count: 36
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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