THE MOON MOVED IN

Yearning for a playmate to move into the empty house next door, Stella doesn’t miss a beat when the Moon takes up residence.

The youngster ventures into the adjacent yard, greeting the celestial being, whose color (blue or white) and shape (spherical or crescent) vary with the setting. Stella’s sensitive approach encourages the orb to admit to feelings of loneliness and boredom in the sky; the Moon also longs to plant things. When Stella points out that the Moon has a neighbor now, the Moon beams. The beautifully paced narrative contains the specificity, restraint, and humor that make for a truly great picture-book read. Textured digital compositions create changing moods as they move from starlit, inky night scenes to progressively more colorful, cheerful images of the Moon’s burgeoning garden. Black endpapers foreground classical topographical views of the moon, along with facts that underscore the unfolding plot. People and the natural world are affected by the Moon’s absence, so tides aren’t moving, the Earth is wobbling, and midnight cruises have been canceled. The Moon is unperturbed, but as the orb’s role in nature becomes clearer, the Moon relents and returns home. A girl Stella’s age eventually moves in, and friendship blossoms, even as there are subtle, welcomed signals of the Moon’s nearness. Stella is tan-skinned and dark-haired; her new friend is pale-skinned and red-haired.

A lovely foray into a world of mystery and beauty, longing and delight.