Moonday

by Adam Rex, Adam Rex (Illustrator)

Overview

What do you do when the moon lowers itself into your backyard?
When mornings are replaced by perpetual night,
and people sigh-sleep in their eyes.
What do you do when the tide comes in,
and all the neighborhood dogs won't stop howling?

You take the moon for a ride.

Adam Rex creates a fantastic tale that is both imaginative and beautiful; one that blurs the line between dreams and reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423119203
Publisher:	Disney-Hyperion
Publication date:	09/03/2013
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	290,357
Product dimensions:	10.80(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Adam Rex is the New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich. His other books include Pssst!, The True Meaning of Smekday, Fat Vampire, and Cold Cereal. He also illustrated the Brixton Brothers series, Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem, and Chloe and the Lion, all by Mac Barnett and Chu's Day by Neil Gaiman. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. Visit him at www.adamrex.com.

Editorial Reviews

Rex’s story begins and ends in sleep, and—although it’s never stated explicitly—seems to describe a dream. The narrator, lifted from the backseat of a car and put to bed, awakens to see the moon, glowing and enormous, floating in her backyard. “I’m going to have a look around,” the girl announces. “Okay,” says her mother, showing little surprise. “Zip up your coat.” Rex’s beautifully drafted nighttime paintings, done with courtroomlike objectivity, are just right for the absentminded alienation of dreams. In a striking spread, the girl is shown at many points on the lunar surface, like the Little Prince on his planet. The moon’s presence (and the permanent night it brings) causes trouble for the rest of the town; her teacher can’t stay awake, and a punk band croons lullabies from a garage. Lonely images of a nighttime car trip evoke Edward Hopper paintings as the girl and her family lead the moon back into the sky. It’s a suggestive account of the movements of the dreaming mind, and a gentle departure from Rex’s more madcap work. Ages 3–7. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Our young narrator wakes one morning to see the "big, beautiful" moon of last night looming huge in her backyard. "Morning had missed us." In the dark of the town, people shuffle to work while the students are drowsy in school and yawn on the way home. The family tries to cover the moon, in vain. Then the tide comes in under it. Our heroine suggests driving away with the moon in the car window, as we see it so often. When the moon lights on the tip of the trees on the top of the hill, she tells it to stay. And mystically, it does. "And it was a good night everywhere." On the paper jacket, the small girl reaches up to touch the huge bright white moon in the dark backyard. In contrast, the cover is all black, with only the title impressed. On the double title page, the town is sketched in brown on tan; on the next double page it is sketched on dark blue, with just a few lights in the houses. Next amid the dark we see the moon hanging full and low, while our heroine watches it through her car window. And then, there it is next morning. The activities in the dark are illustrated naturalistically, in this magical, possibly imagined story. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

10/01/2013
K-Gr 2—Many children looking out a car window have thought that the Moon was following them. This luminous fable starts out by drawing on that familiar experience, but when this girl wakes up the next day, there is no morning-just the Moon, "Lower and larger. And very nearly on the ground. It was in our backyard." The spare poetic text, combined with illustrations in dark and vibrant jewel tones, makes each page turn carry a contemplative weight. In darkness, people stumble and yawn through their days. The child walks home from school through a surreal nighttime landscape where people doze at stoplights and sleepwalk through their hobbies. Eventually, the narrator and her parents drive the Moon out to the top of a hill where the youngster tells it to "Stay." And it does. Its glow seems to leap off the page, eerie and pervasive compared to the warm but limited glow of electric lights. Because the adults' reactions are mundane, the story inhabits that magical territory that exists for young children who haven't yet figured the world out. Anything truly is possible. Children will love this tribute to their imaginings, and adults will appreciate the reminder that until you are taught otherwise, the Moon really can follow you all the way home.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, White Bear Lake, MN

School Library Journal

The moon follows a girl home, takes up residence in her yard and stays put--keeping the sun from rising and the town stuck in a drowsy stupor. Enchanting language and a jaw-dropping premise place readers under a similar somnolent spell. Gentle rhymes, recurring consonance and almost subliminal rhythms make murky, dreamy paintings vivid and the surreal story sleepily spectacular. Who wouldn't close their eyes and rock to these soothing lines, as startlingly brilliant as moonlight? "That was when the tide came in. / It trickled in to our backyard. The tide came in, smooth and thin, / and settled underneath our moon." Their moon, cratered, full and luminous, hovers low just off the back porch; the girl walks its circumference and asks from upside down, "What now?" When teachers nod off and punk bands sing lullabies, the moon's family decides to drive back up the mountain, where they first picked up their round friend, in the hope it will follow. Children familiar with soporific car trips will appreciate these commonplace scenes that frame such a fantastical story. Straightforward illustrations and traditional sepia, aerial renderings of the town make this fantastical lunar story all the more wondrous. This mashup of the ordinary and the far-out, of a little neighborhood and a giant, glowing orb from outer space, thrills. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

""...a suggestive account of the movements of the dreaming mind..."" - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher