Max and the Tag-Along Moon

by Floyd Cooper, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Overview

Experience the wonder of the moon following you home with a Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator! Great for Father’s Day and Grandparent’s Day!

Max loves his grandpa. When they must say good-bye after a visit, Grandpa promises Max that the moon at Grandpa’s house is the same moon that will follow him all the way home. On that swervy-curvy car ride back to his house, Max watches as the moon tags along. But when the sky darkens and the moon disappears behind clouds, he worries that it didn’t follow him home after all. Where did the moon go—and what about Grandpa’s promise?
 
Floyd Cooper received the Coretta Scott King Award for The Blacker the Berry, three Coretta Scott King Honors for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, Meet Danitra Brown, and I Have Heard of a Land, and an NAACP image award. In Max and the Tag-Along Moon, his lush paintings perfectly capture the wonder of the moon, the love between grandfather and grandson, and that feeling of magic every child experiences when the moon follows him home..
 
“Coretta Scott King Award–winning Cooper has created a gentle, comforting story that will reassure children that those who love us are always with us.”
—Booklist

“Cooper uses his signature style to illustrate both the landscape—sometimes viewed from the car windows or reflected in the vehicle's mirror—and the expressive faces of his characters. Coupled with the story's lyrical text, this is a lovely mood piece. A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780147515469
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/10/2015
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.75(h) x 0.14(d)
Lexile:	NC680L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Floyd Cooper started drawing when he was three years old and has never stopped. He has been awarded the Coretta Scott King Award for The Blacker the Berry, three Coretta Scott King Honors for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, Meet Danitra Brown, and I Have Heard of a Land, and an NAACP image award. He was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and graduated with a degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Coretta Scott King Award–winning Cooper has created a gentle, comforting story that will reassure children that those who love us are always with us.”
—Booklist
 
“Cooper uses his signature style to illustrate both the landscape—sometimes viewed from the car windows or reflected in the vehicle's mirror—and the expressive faces of his characters. Coupled with the story's lyrical text, this is a lovely mood piece. A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
“The full moon is a friendly presence on each spread, and the varied vantage points incorporate soothing imagery, such as a bird silhouetted against the sky. Signs with arrows point the way home, reassuring readers that despite the lengthy trip, Max is heading in the right direction. His face is expressive, clearly conveying his varied emotions, from wonder to happiness and wistfulness. Perfect for one-on-one readings”
—School Library Journal
 
“Writing in poetic, evocative prose, Cooper offers just the right amount of support to the lush illustrations and the thoughtful, observant hero.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“There's a softness to the naturalistic double-page scenes, particularly when the moon glow illuminates the night drive through the peaceful landscape and in the close-ups of Max's bedtime preparations. The paintings created using a subtractive process in mixed media help define Cooper's characteristic humanistic images.”
—Children’s Literature

Editorial Reviews

Coretta Scott King Award–winning Cooper has created a gentle, comforting story that will reassure children that those who love us are always with us.”
—Booklist
 
“Cooper uses his signature style to illustrate both the landscape—sometimes viewed from the car windows or reflected in the vehicle's mirror—and the expressive faces of his characters. Coupled with the story's lyrical text, this is a lovely mood piece. A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
“The full moon is a friendly presence on each spread, and the varied vantage points incorporate soothing imagery, such as a bird silhouetted against the sky. Signs with arrows point the way home, reassuring readers that despite the lengthy trip, Max is heading in the right direction. His face is expressive, clearly conveying his varied emotions, from wonder to happiness and wistfulness. Perfect for one-on-one readings”
—School Library Journal
 
“Writing in poetic, evocative prose, Cooper offers just the right amount of support to the lush illustrations and the thoughtful, observant hero.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“There's a softness to the naturalistic double-page scenes, particularly when the moon glow illuminates the night drive through the peaceful landscape and in the close-ups of Max's bedtime preparations. The paintings created using a subtractive process in mixed media help define Cooper's characteristic humanistic images.”
—Children’s Literature

From the Publisher

It’s hard to leave Granpa’s house, but he has a promise for young Max: the “big fine moon” in the sky “will always shine for you... on and on!” Granpa seems right for most of the “swervy-curvy” trip home—which is beautifully captured by the velvety textures, luminous palette, and curvilinear shapes of Cooper’s spreads. Then storm clouds turn the sky dark, and in Max’s anxious face it’s easy to see that he’s wondering whether the loneliness and disappointment brought on by the moon’s disappearance means something about his own world, too: what happens when someone he love disappears? Many authors would have brought in another adult to help Max mediate his feelings, but Cooper (Brick by Brick) gives the boy room to think, so that when moon reappears, Max has a deeper understanding of what Granpa’s promise means: love, like the moon’s light, goes “on and on.” Writing in poetic, evocative prose, Cooper offers just the right amount of support to the lush illustrations and the thoughtful, observant hero. Ages 3–7. (June)

Publishers Weekly

As Max hugs his Granpa goodbye one night, he notices the shining moon outside. The car pulls away from Granpa, but the moon seems to "tag along" on the curvy ride home, playing peekaboo all the way. When dark clouds gather, Max wonders where the moon is. Granpa told him it would always shine for him. In his bed, Max misses both the moon and Granpa. But then the clouds clear, the moon shines again, and Max is reassured that the moon will always shine for him, "...on and on!" reminding him of his loving Granpa. There's a softness to the naturalistic double-page scenes, particularly when the moon glow illuminates the night drive through the peaceful landscape and in the close-ups of Max's bedtime preparations. The paintings created using a subtractive process in mixed media help define Cooper's characteristic humanistic images. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

PreS-K—A big, round moon shines down on a boy and his grandfather as they share a good-bye hug, and Granpa tells Max, "That ol' moon will always shine for you…on and on." The child keeps an eye on the moon on the long drive home, spying it in the side mirror of his family's car and through branches above him. Over hills and bridges, past sleeping cows, and through a quiet town, it is always in view. Then, when dark clouds hide it, Max feels its absence. It reappears as he is going to sleep, and he throw his hands in the air with joy at the shining orb that "will always shine for me… on and on!" A lovely comforting story for children who don't like good-byes, the quiet text flows along, and the soft, diffuse paintings make the book a wonderful bedtime read-aloud. The full moon is a friendly presence on each spread, and the varied vantage points incorporate soothing imagery, such as a bird silhouetted against the sky. Signs with arrows point the way home, reassuring readers that despite the lengthy trip, Max is heading in the right direction. His face is expressive, clearly conveying his varied emotions, from wonder to happiness and wistfulness. Perfect for one-on-one readings.—Marian McLeod, Darien Library, CT

School Library Journal

After a visit, an African-American grandfather and grandson say farewell under a big yellow moon. Granpa tells Max it is the same moon he will see when he gets home. This gently told story uses Max's fascination with the moon's ability to "tag along" where his family's car goes as a metaphor for his grandfather's constant love. Separating the two relatives is "a swervy-curvy road" that travels up and down hills, over a bridge, "past a field of sleeping cows," around a small town and through a tunnel. No matter where Max travels, the moon is always there, waiting around a curve or peeking through the trees. But then "[d]ark clouds tumbled across the night sky." No stars, no nightingales and no moon are to be found. Max frets: "Granpa said it would always shine for me." Disappointed, Max climbs into bed, missing both the moon and his granpa. In a dramatic double-page spread, readers see Max's excitement as "[s]lowly, very slowly, Max's bedroom began to fill with a soft yellow glow." Cooper uses his signature style to illustrate both the landscape--sometimes viewed from the car windows or reflected in the vehicle's mirror--and the expressive faces of his characters. Coupled with the story's lyrical text, this is a lovely mood piece. A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews