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MOONLIGHT

A stunning bedtime tale infused with a bit of suspense.

Full of mystery and intrigue, a personified beam of moonlight is on the move as a child sleeps, wakes, wonders, and is reassured.

Solitary text on a dark page suggests that something is out there—awake, alive, and moving. It’s in a lush jungle, where a hushed tone pervades and gazelles bound away. It is slithering, tumbling, hiding, seemingly ready to pounce. When dense landscapes open to the sea, the mood lightens from ominous to adventurous. Something catches a plane, then a train and rides through mountain passes. But the relief is short-lived as readers quickly realize the something is coming closer, into their neighborhoods and rooms. At the height of suspense, a child awakens in a room with a toy plane and a framed picture of a gazelle—hints that what readers just witnessed were parts of a dream. Not fearful, the child longs for the moonlight to return. Savage uses linocuts in a limited palette of various hues of blue to create deceivingly simple, atmospheric illustrations with sophisticated depth. Bathed in blue, the child's race is unclear. Repetitive patterning and striking compositions create loads of visual play, while the descriptive, minimal text—sometimes only a phrase per spread—sets the tone. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A stunning bedtime tale infused with a bit of suspense. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-8234-5084-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House

Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022

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BECAUSE I HAD A TEACHER

A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.

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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

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WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, MR. BROWN?

Pedestrian.

Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.

Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 14, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals

Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

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