Rino Alaimo's The boy who loved the Moon

Rino Alaimo

Book - 2015

In a retelling of an award-winning short film, a boy who falls in love with the Moon after a blackout tries to win her affection with a variety of a gifts, only to be rejected.

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jE/Alaimo
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Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room jE/Alaimo Due Mar 17, 2024
Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
[Sanger, California] : Familius LLC [2015]
Language
English
Main Author
Rino Alaimo (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
1 volume (unpaged) : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781939629760
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Italian filmmaker Alaimo offers a book adaptation of his 2012 short film, The Boy and the Moon. It's a classic romance in which a knight pursues a lady-but the knight is a boy with an upturned nose, and the lady is the moon hanging in his window. Night-black spreads lit with warm, copper-tinged light show the boy diving into the sea for an exquisite pearl, then slaying a dragon for its diamond eye. But the moon rejects his gifts. At last he ties a rope around her to keep her in the sky as the sun rises, giving her, in a dazzling revelation of light, "the beauty of the colors of the day" and winning her love. Some readers may be puzzled by the boy's devotion to the moon; it's a crescent shape hanging in the sky with no visible reactions or expressions-a celestial object rather than a character. And while the book stops when the boy and the moon unite, the film continues on to a different conclusion. Still, it's clear that Alaimo is a polished craftsman in both mediums. Ages 5-8. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

In this atmospheric version of the author's prizewinning short film, a lad woosand ultimately winsthe Moon. Strangely, in the film, the story is revealed at the end to be an allegorical take on a more earthly pursuit, but here, Alaimo tells it straight. His heart captured by the Moon, a lonely boy endures "a long and arduous journey upward" (not depicted) to offer her a rose. She rejects that gift, as well as the pearl that he fetches from the sea and the diamond eye he intrepidly cuts from a dragon. Ignoring an old man's warning that she would transform him forever, he finally ties the Moon in place until she beholds "the beauty of the colors of the day" and so accepts him at last. Except for the climactic daylight spread, the illustrations, drawn from the film, feature a boy, the big crescent Moon, and other shadowy figures lit in pale gold against dark backdrops of equally dim stars. Over and above the bondage bit, not only is the original's plotline significantly altered and shortened, but two scenesone showing the lad planning his final ploy and the other of a threatening shadoware confusingly jammed together. In video and on paper, the art casts an evocative glow, but the story is much changed and the transition from one medium to the other, awkwardly accomplished. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.