Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Anderson's first children's book, the author compellingly likens the moon to a work of art, each onlooker bringing to it his or her own experience. Deep in the forest, a group of animals gather to discuss the moon, but cannot agree on how to define it. For the fox, it's a rabbit, "swift and large and glowing," while the moth sees a cocoon, "a place where moths of legend are born and fly like stars to light the sky." Perhaps the mouse's interpretation is most poetic: "Planted deep in night soil, it blooms as a sunflower by day and warms my back, then slips to seed again at dusk. It is a seed in endless bloom." To settle their dispute, they visit the Man of Science, who boils it down into cold, hard facts. "It takes more than words to know the moon, it must be chased and felt and seen," says the fox. Couch conjures an ethereal world with acrylic wash and colored pencil, scattering stars across the pages like spangled fairy dust and dipping his brush in the misty hues of midnight. Like the lyrical text, his illustrations deftly contrast hard-edged fact with the willowy world of imagination: the scientist's square face and wiry hair stand out in sharp relief against the lean, fluid flow of the fox and oval owl. This luscious picture book may well leave readers moonstruck. Ages 3-7. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-When the animals of the forest gather together to marvel at the full moon, they find they cannot agree on what it really is. To the fox, it is an elusive rabbit that hides behind clouds and plays a game of chase; to the owl, it's "a window, cut through the night like the hollow of a tree"; to the frog, it's a "golden lily pad that glistens in every pond and puddle." At an impasse, the animals trundle off to seek an answer from the Man of Science, a recluse who lives in a nearby observatory. He dismisses their poetic assumptions about the celestial body with cold, hard facts, telling them exactly how it's shaped and what it's made of. Dazed and disappointed, the creatures return to the forest, struggling with their new knowledge. In the end, they conclude that regardless of the moon's "real" properties, their varied perceptions of it remain perfectly valid. Anderson's mesmerizing, rhythmic text has a lovely cadence for a nighttime tale. The story analyzes the nature of knowledge and ultimately concludes that truth is not necessarily beauty, nor is beauty always contingent upon the truth. Couch's acrylic-wash and colored-pencil illustrations are deep and dense. Both text and art work together beautifully to impart a simple truth about what wisdom really is.-Catherine T. Quattlebaum, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
When a group of animals argue that each knows the truth about the moon, they turn to a Man of Science to settle their dispute. Dissatisfied with his answer--an enumeration of facts and figures--they decide the moon can be the sum of all their experiences and knowledge. The hazy, stylized illustrations and pseudo-poetic text are more a lesson about the limitations of science and the value of emotional experience than a story. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fox, a moth, an owl, a mouse, and a frognight creatures allfight with each other over their definitions of the moon. The fox says its a rabbit, swift and large and glowing; the moth that its a big cocoon where moths of legend are born; the owl that its a window in a midnight room; the mouse that its a seed in endless bloom; and the frog that its a lily pad for froggy croons. To settle their quarrel, they visit the Man of Science, who lives alone with his thoughts in a tower high enough to almost touch the moon. The Man of Science reads to them from a squarish book, but the animals do not find the moon in its inky pages, and return sadly home, each holding to his or her own definition. The fox speaks for all of them when he says, The Man says its made of lettersI know its more the spaces in between. The concepts and vocabulary in this sometimes disconcertingly rhyming text are overly abstract, complex, and metaphorical for the audience of three- to seven-year-olds for whom the book and its illustrations are targeted, although there may somewhere be a five-year-old with a philosophical bent to whom the book will appeal. The illustrations, too, convey mixed messages with their combination of bold and sophisticated colors and patterns and their comically caricatured animals. The white words on black backgrounds are placed to the far left or right of each opening, leaving no room for them to be spaced in lines that reflect their rhythmic patterns. Well-intentioned textbut it misses its mark. (Picture book. 3-7)
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