The Night the Moon Blew Kisses - Hardcover

Manuel, Lynn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395739799 ISBN 13: 9780395739792

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996

Synopsis

Walking with her grandmother on a snowy moonlit night, a granddaughter perceives that the moon is lonely and blows kisses at it, and later the moon kisses her back during a snowfall.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite its too sweet, cotton-candy title, this atmospheric lullaby?which comes with a built-in good-night kiss?evokes the largeness of a small event. A girl and her grandmother walk under a winter night's moon. The youngster blows a kiss to the lonely moon?"a swirly kiss, a twirly kiss,/ a willowy-billowy/ wisp of a kiss." And the moon returns the gesture with a gentle puff of snowflakes?"frozen kisses/ melt against our faces!" With restrained wonder, first-time author Manuel's delicate language touches the sweet, fleeting nature of a kiss. Showing swirls of light in the winter sky and swirls of motion in the paths of the falling snow, Spowart's (Vegetable Soup; Mama, If You Had a Wish) vapory colored pencil illustrations gather strength in their abstract simplicity. But they also risk a fuzzy coziness that culminates in the trite, happy-faced moon. Crossing the thin line between playful and cute, the book's genuine warmth cools somewhat. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2-A girl and her grandmother share a mystical, marvelous nighttime tour of a winter landscape. The story takes place in some remote time and place-the characters both wear long cloaks, and the area is unpopulated. There is a snow shower, but the moon shines through, sending kisses and swirling flakes around the girl's face to caress her. For the most part, the figures are not overly delineated, with round heads and dark, flowing garments around them. They are dwarfed by the overwhelming landscape and broad nighttime sky, done in blues and dark greens in heavy pastels that emphasize tones and atmospherics. This is a quiet, lovely book. The language is simple, poetic, and unpretentious, like the billowy illustrations.
Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0395739799
• ISBN 13: 9780395739792
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Spowart Robin