SUN AND MOON

Luminous, intricate illustrations light up this tale of a lonely Moon, who yearns to trade places with the wise Sun.

Imagining the wonder of watching flowers bloom and children play, Moon eagerly proposes the switch—but Sun makes two preconditions: first, the exchange must be permanent, and second, Moon should first spend an entire night looking down at Earth more closely than ever before. Yankey lays flat, cut-paper figures of pale children, bright carpets of delicate flowers, sinuously elongated wild creatures, and flowing lines of landscape over backgrounds of deep, starry darkness. With this technique, she shows the astonished Moon city lights shining out, sleeping children flying through magical dreams, baobab flowers floating like ghosts, raccoons scampering on mysterious errands in the silvery forest, and fireflies gleaming like low stars. All of these are profound revelations, and by the time Sun returns, the enthralled Moon has changed his mind completely about ever losing them. The narrative describes Moon’s discoveries in sonorous but unaffected language.

A lovely tale to share, day or night.