DR. JON JON SAVES THE MOON

When the moon turns green a child suggests asking NASA to send a specialist to ask it why.

“I look green from the surface of the planet because my friend the Earth is actually sick,” replies the moon—a line that points to the actual, cogent message that our home, not its satellite, is what needs healing. Once the “moon doctor” (depicted in Trenk’s bland cartoons as a White man, sadly missing the opportunity to diversify STEM) returns to Earth and “excitedly share[s] what the moon had told him,” everyone—mostly children in the otherwise racially diverse cast, though even the grown-ups have a childlike look—realizes that their lands and seas are strewn with garbage and understands that all creatures need “a nice clean place to live.” So the great cleanup is accomplished (though, realistically, not “overnight”), and curing the disease cures the symptom as the moon, its golden glow restored, smiles down at the doctor in a final serene scene. While it’s hard not to wonder whether the then-4-year-old author had more than a bit of help with the writing, it’s an ingenious premise, as even readers who know better will start unconsciously checking the moon for a greenish tinge…and then remembering why.

Out of the mouths of babes too, now. Maybe it’s time to get on the stick.