Winter Moon Song

Brooks (Queen of Hearts) presents a version of the moon rabbit myth, sandwiched within a story about a curious rabbit coming into his own. After the young hero glimpses the image of a rabbit in the moon, he asks his mother how it got there. In Brooks’s retelling, the rabbits’ ancestral Great Mother has come to Earth and found it “a lonely business.” A small rabbit, recognizing her, throws himself into her stewpot as a sacrifice; the Great Mother rescues the rabbit by hurling him to the moon, where he remains (“That’s it?” the rabbit asks his mother). After the rabbits sing their traditional Winter Moon Song, the rabbit leads them in a spontaneous second performance outdoors, suggesting that the purest form of praise occurs out in creation itself, not in cloistered holy places. Ruifernández paints vast white expanses of snow and crisp blue-violet night skies; her moody, soft watercolors may remind some readers of Komako Sakai’s work. Brooks creates lovely, evocative imagery, but impatient readers may struggle with the slow pace, lengthy text, and murky meaning of the rabbit’s discoveries. Ages 4–7. [em](Aug.) [/em]