ME AND MRS MOON

A child worriedly looks on as an older neighbor begins to exhibit signs of dementia in this British import.

Drawing both actual incidents and tender, loving tone from Martin Slevin’s memoir, Little Girl in the Radiator (2012), Bate views through the eyes of young Maisie a pattern of increasingly erratic behavior by her beloved friend Mrs Moon. The lapses begin with the kindly ex-nurse’s discombobulating appearance in a coat with ripped-off sleeves and escalate to a noisy assault with a hammer on a radiator in the belief that there is a child trapped inside. That last finally spurs Maisie’s parents to contact Mrs Moon’s daughter in Australia. The tale is a bit wordy, the text incorporating blocks of narrative, a list of common symptoms of dementia, and dialogue balloons. Nevertheless, the author leaves adequate space in her rounded panels for faces smiling and anxious, for memories of happier times, for hugs and tears—and for flashing lights in the scariest moment, when Mrs Moon causes a kitchen fire. In the wake of Maisie’s perceptive comment that “she’s trying so hard to make sense of the world, and she just doesn’t understand it any more,” Mrs Moon’s daughter tells the relieved child that she’ll be taking her mother back to Australia rather than leaving her in a senior home among strangers. Except in one crowd scene, faces are white throughout.

Poignant, loving, informative, and consoling alike for children in similar situations.