School Library Journal Review
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. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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 PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
