The Boy and the Blue Moon

A cat and "his boy" take a walk through the woods on the night of a blue moon, a night when "anything can happen." They hear singing (it "might have been birds or it might have been dragons") and come to a lake "where there'd never been a lake before." They climb into a waiting boat and have a magical adventure. When the boat ride becomes a trip to the moon, a full-bleed wordless double-page spread shows boy and cat on the moon's surface, with the Earth distant in the starry sky. The digitally manipulated mixed-media illustrations use gouache, graphite sticks, pastels, colored pencils, and a water brush pen to attain a deeply saturated set of blues. Crowley's use of perspective combined with the glossy paper creates a lot of depth, as the light catches the darkest elements and makes them nearly glow. The fanciful, lyrical text and the boy's shock of yellow hair make the book a bit reminiscent of The Little Prince. A final spread shows the boy home in bed, in a room with a telescope and other space memorabilia. It's a good choice for discussing with children what is real and what is made up, without insisting on one right answer. susan dove lempke