Starred review from May 4, 2015
Working in collage, Pearle (A Child’s Day: An Alphabet of Play) sets delicately cut, classically proportioned human figures onto backdrops of striking colors and patterns. The effect is breathtaking. Pearle uses marbled paper in shades of pink and orange for the sky at dusk as Addy’s family drives home after a play date in the city, and the moon appears to follow them. “Look way up high,” writes Pearle, as the moon shines over the tall buildings, “and way down low,” as it appears under a bridge. In her car seat, Addy twists and turns to see. “Oh, now I know,” she says, as they drive over the last hill. “The moon was going to my house!” Pearle’s portrait of Addy as she holds her pajamas out in front of her has the grace of a Renoir. A page turn shows her prancing with joy beneath the gigantic moon: “It waited to light up my nighttime dance.” Pearle captures silky motion, conjures up a sense of warmth without reserve, and celebrates children’s intuitive grasp of the natural world. Ages 3–5. Agent: Meredith Kaffel, DeFiore and Company.
Starred review from May 1, 2015
Addy spots the moon as she leaves her city play date and marvels as it follows her all the way back to her country home. Cut-paper collages construct both urban and woodsy landscapes that throb with vitality. The papers (marbled, speckled, dotted, in floral and geometric designs) cohere effortlessly, creating wonderfully intoxicating illustrations. Their patterns undulate and swirl, producing roiling energy that describes both a city neighborhood humming with strollers, scooters, dogs, and skipping children as well as a windswept, buggy nighttime car ride back home to the country. Children will dote on details nestled in each illustration: flashy feathers on a blackbird's wing, apartment tenants perched in their windows, folds and patterns in clothing, the arch of a boat's sail. The moon remains ever present, popping up in different sizes, hues, quadrants of the sky. Breathtaking double-page spreads (in unabashed pinks, purples, and blues) show the moon duplicated, reflected, and enlarged across expanses of sky. Readers, like Addy, feel tethered to Pearle's moon and to her masterful pictures that manage to communicate the comforting reciprocity found in its presence. Back home, under a gigantic pulsing-pink moon, Addy understands, "It waits and watches over me, / always. Exquisite, electrifying, soothing, and soporific, brilliant in color and execution, this book beams. (Picture book. 2-8)
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Starred review from June 1, 2015
PreS-Gr 1-The perceived movements of the moon during a car ride are a source of mystery and delight to children-and there is no shortage of picture books on the topic. Pearle, however, brings fresh excitement to this phenomenon with her dynamic cut-paper collages. The story opens at the end of a "play date." Addy and her sister have been building with blocks at a friend's home in the city. The pale moon is visible through the window and in subsequent compositions. As the family drives home, the girls play hide-and-seek with the orb, searching throughout the bustling neighborhood, under the bridge, and behind the mountains. Pearle employs a variety of techniques to maintain interest. A warm palette turns cool; paper choices range from the vibrant marbleized swirls of a facade to the wispy rice paper suggesting a cloud. Shifting perspectives include a bird's-eye view and a reflection. Particularly effective is the illusion of the scenery as a blurred stack of horizontal lines as the family rides swiftly through the country, windows rolled down, hair blowing about. The first-person text is sparse and childlike. The blank faces (except for a few slight, occasional lines, suggesting a cheekbone or eye socket), may strike some as odd, but there is much to recommend this spirited offering, not the least of which is the dazzling conclusion in which the pajama-clad Addy is shown in simultaneous succession. The spread captures eight different positions of a moonlit cartwheel. VERDICT A lovely celebration of a magical celestial companion.-Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library
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