cover image The Boy and the Moon

The Boy and the Moon

James Christopher Carroll, Sleeping Bear, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-58536-521-0

At midnight, a boy steps outside to howl and dance with animals under a swirling periwinkle sky in debut author/illustrator Carroll's story of moonlight revelry and a boy's ingenuity. When the moon gets stuck in a tree, the boy bravely ascends, feeding it apples and allowing the now "full" moon to roll out of the tree. There's an overall eerie feel to Carroll's artwork that won't appeal to all tastes—the degree to which the moon and a flower are personified feels especially strange next to the actual boy—but the story has an undeniable pull, as "They howled at the moon, they howled at life, and they howled with all the things in the night." Ages 4–6. (Sept.)