Music for Mister Moon

A low-key, atmospheric encounter a-glimmer with verbal and visual grace notes. (Picture book. 6-9)

Copyright 2019 Kirkus Reviews, LLC Used with permission. 

A girl named Harriet accidentally knocks the moon out of the sky in this story by the Caldecott Award-winning Steads. He's a round, lemony globe with a kindly expression who dreams of not being the moon; she takes him rowing on a lake (which he's always wanted to do), then carries him home into the sky with the help of some owls and a fishing net. But the tale is perhaps better understood as a portrait of Harriet, a solemn, solitary child with a long braid who loves to play the cello but hates to be watched. "Someday you will play your cello in a big orchestra," her parents say. "Won't that make you happy?" Harriet retreats to a secret place in her mind: "Then she closed her eyes and changed her parents into penguins." The fine lines of Erin Stead's pencil drawings introduce readers to Harriet's inner life, where the wishes of her parents and the glare of the world can't intrude. It's a deep, almost reverent look at how a child can use her imagination to create not just the world she wants, but the world she needs. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 2--What if you threw your teacup out the window and it accidentally knocked the moon out of the sky? All Harriet wants to do is practice her cello alone in her room. While she prepares to play, she imagines her room is a little house with a kitchen table, a teacup, and a fireplace. But each time she attempts to begin playing, she is repeatedly interrupted by a loud hooting owl. In attempts to make the owl quiet down, Harriet (who goes by Hank) throws her teacup out the window and into the night! The owl flies away but soon Harriet realizes that she has knocked the moon from the sky and into her chimney. After helping him out of the chimney, the shy musician and Mr. Moon adventure into the night and do many things including finding the perfect hat for Mr. Moon and even enjoying a midnight boat ride. Harriet has made amends for her mistake, but will she work up the courage to play music for her new friend? The award-winning Steads who are best known for their Caldecott Medal book A Sick Day for Amos McGee are back with a delightful picture book in their signature style. The soft and dreamlike illustrations done with oil based monoprinting on a sheet of acrylic and are the perfect accompaniment to the simple and thoughtful prose as they work in harmony to bring Harriet's dream to the pages. VERDICT A gentle bedtime story that is recommended for all.--Elizabeth Blake, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

★ "In making amends for a thoughtless act, a shy young cellist finds just the right audience. . . . The illustrations, as spare and harmonious as the prose, are pale constructs of lightly applied pencil over misty ink monoprints . . . A low-key, atmospheric encounter a-glimmer with verbal and visual grace notes."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

★ "a gift for the eyes and a delight for the imagination. Encore, please." —Booklist, Starred Review

★ "The award-winning Steads who are best known for their Caldecott Medal book A Sick Day for Amos McGee are back with a delightful picture book in their signature style. The soft and dreamlike illustrations done with oil based monoprinting on a sheet of acrylic and are the perfect accompaniment to the simple and thoughtful prose as they work in harmony to bring Harriet's dream to the pages. A gentle bedtime story that is recommended for all." —School Library Journal, Starred Review

★ "Caldecott medalist Erin Stead's layers of oil ink and colored pencil weave a translucent moonlit spell around the graphite-sketched characters, including a thick-furred bear in a trapper hat and an upright, pot-bellied walrus. Introverts and dreamers ages four to nine will gravitate to Philip Stead's wistful Mister Moon, who thinks oars moving through the water and buoy bells are music compared to the quiet sky. Subtle and whimsical, Music for Mister Moon celebrates the peace that grows between trusted friends."—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

"Erin Stead's prints, embellished with colored pencil and graphite, use point of view to create perceptual distance while simultaneously establishing a close emotional connection."—The Horn Book

"The fine lines of Erin Stead's pencil drawings introduce readers to Harriet's inner life, where the wishes of her parents and the glare of the world can't intrude. It's a deep, almost reverent look at how a child can use her imagination to create not just the world she wants, but the world she needs."—Publishers Weekly

"With a superb balance between text and art, Music for Mister Moon is a vivid journey into a child's nuanced inner world." —BookPage