Another
timeless and wordless picture book that, along with companion book Sunshine,
top and tail-ends the day for a little girl and her family. It’s
evening, and the reader sees a little girl who is eating dinner with her
parents before getting ready for bed. Opening onto a bright and cheerful dinner
table, the follow-up activities of dish-washing and bath-time are colourful and
fresh, yet contain the sense of taking us into a gentler, more quiet realm.
The little girl has made a sail-boat at the kitchen table for bath-time from a bowl and napkin (with dad’s cogs whirring as he decides whether to support or ignore this creative impulse), and of course she ends up totally drenched despite a carefully placed shower cap. You can almost hear the wailing objections as mummy combs her wet hair – and then see the glee when the little girl combs her rag-doll’s wet hair in the same fashion.
After all this
activity, it’s good-night to toys, pyjamas and then straight into bed.
Or is it?
The detail,
warmth and humour in this story is fresh, alive and captivating. Every family
with small children will relate to what happens next – the putting of a child back
into bed over and over and over.
As with
companion book Sunshine, a distinctive economy of illustration line and a
limited colour palette in Moonlight creates a timeless and utterly engaging
world which flows seamlessly from one illustration to the next.
The
brightness of the family illustrations contrasted with the subdued colours of
bed, make the lounge room with its companionable reading and chatting an
exciting and enticing place to be.
This is the perfect book to pore over at bedtime. In the company of small eyes and hearts, of course.
Title: Moonlight – Celebrating Forty YearsPublisher: Pan Macmillan, $19.99
Publication Date: 02 March 2022
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781460761601
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Books
