THE MOON CAME DOWN ON MILK STREET

There’s a touch of In the Night Kitchen to this dreamlike, comforting episode. One night, the Moon falls quietly to Earth on urban Milk Street—but hardly have the pieces settled than squads of rescuers, mostly of the uniformed variety, converge to reassemble it, and lift it carefully back into place. Gralley crowds her city with buildings that resemble kitchenware or food containers, and populates it with industrious groups of rumple-haired, Sendak-like children dressed as firefighters, police officers, and medical workers. She prefaces her brief, rhymed text (several spreads are wordless) with advice that Mister Rogers attributed to his mother, to look for helpers when confronted by a traffic accident or other scary scene, and closes with a goodnight wish to “helpers everywhere.” A gentle, heartfelt tribute to those who work together in emergencies. (Picture book. 4-6)