MAE AND THE MOON

A little girl loves the moon and worries when it disappears.

Mae’s favorite game to play with the moon is hide-and-seek. But suddenly, one night, the moon is gone! Mae looks for it everywhere. Her mom tells her that even the moon needs to rest. But Mae can’t just sit and wait. This petite, pigtailed heroine must do something, so she creates a rocket ship out of a cardboard box. She flies up to space and gratefully hugs her long-lost friend. But when her papa interrupts her imaginary play, Mae looks up to the sky and realizes that the moon really is back. In its crescent shape, it looks like it is smiling at her. Gigot’s picture-book debut is awash with deep, purple-blue nighttime hues and luminous moonlight. The text is placed sparingly on the page. At the climax, when the moon disappears, a full spread of inky, starry blackness heightens the drama. A labeled diagram of the phases of the moon appears at the end (to be covered by pasted library flaps, alas). While it’s hard to imagine that Mae could not have noticed the phases of the moon before this, her attachment nevertheless rings true.

Not spectacularly innovative but sweet just the same.