Your Moon, My Moon

June 6, 2011
Collier's crisp, complex illustrations add light to Newbery Awardâwinner MacLachlan's open letter to a grandchild who lives in Africa. The child's visits are rare, and his sunny surroundings contrast with her cold winters. MacLachlan rehearses facts his parents have told her about him ("Now you like every single book about the moonâyou love the moon") and ponders ways to keep their bond strong ("I sing the songs I sang to you every night./ I sing them/ so I will remember you,/ hoping that you will remember me too"). Photographic elementsâfabrics, textures, peopleâwithin Collier's collages enhance the impact of his realistic portraits. Despite the distance and differences in landscape, text and art shape the story from one of separation into one of connection. Successive spreads make it clear that the grandmother is headed to Africa; in the penultimate painting, she enters the child's room with a wrapped present. While not all children are equally conscious of those who are absent, MacLachlan's distinctive grace and lyricism make this an effective if solemn reminder that they are loved and remembered from afar. Ages 4â8.

July 1, 2011

Missing a grandchild in a distant tropical country, a grandmother remembers their times together and reflects that they share the same moon.

While New Englander MacLachlan has dedicated her collection of memories to a granddaughter in Tanzania, Collier's textured watercolor-and-collage illustrations tell a different story. In his version, a brown-haired grandmother is packing a bag and a present and taking an airplane to visit her grandson while recalling earlier visits and imagining what he might be doing. These images extend across the gutter; the gentle text is set on a complementarily colored panel and addresses the grandchild directly. Pictures contrast grandmother's winter of snow and ice with lush African scenes of the child's world; loving dogs dwell in both places. The moon is featureless, neatly avoiding the issue of its upside-down appearance on opposite sides of the equator. On the culminating "Your moon is my moon too" page, text and picture join. Both author's and illustrator's stories are personal and particular; the combination may broaden the appeal. But they may also confuse readers who will wonder about the apartment-dwelling grandmother's proximity to the mountains. 

Both doting grandparents and their faraway grandchildren can appreciate the message of this unabashedly sentimental tribute, an obvious gift book. (Picture book. 3-7)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011

K-Gr 2-A grandmother who lives in the U.S. prepares to visit her grandson, who lives in Africa. While the moon is common to them both, she points out the many differences in their lives as she reminisces about past times together. When it is cold in one place, it is hot and dry in the other. There is ice-skating where she lives and lake swimming where he lives. Always, though, there is the moon, and as the story comes to a close, grandparent and grandchild are reunited under it. Collier's vibrant illustrations are a blend of watercolor and his trademark collage. This is a wonderful book to contrast different lifestyles. Pair it with Nigel Gray's A Country Far Away (Scholastic, 1989) to further illustrate cultural differences and human commonalities.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2011
Preschool-G As a grandmother watches snowflakes fall past her apartment window, she thinks of her grandson far away in a hot African village and longs to be with him again. Massachusetts author MacLachlan dedicates this picture book to her grandchild, who was born in Tanzania, and her story's very simple words, in lyrical free verse, will touch young kids everywhere who feel a bond with a distant grandparent (even though I am here / and you are there). Collier's bright, warm watercolor-and-collage illustrations show the two separate worlds as well as the bonds as the grandmother remembers visits with her grandson and imagines what they could do together now. At her home, she could teach him to skate on the icy pond. At his home, they could swim in a gleaming lake, look at monkeys, and share books. Filled with yearning, the story builds to a climax as the pictures show the grandmother packing her bag, sitting on a plane, surprising her grandson with her arrival, and giving him a loving embrace.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)