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PRESCHOOL
Downing, Julie

Hello, Moon

32 pp. | Holiday/Porter | May, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8234-4701-5 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-8234-5058-9 $11.99
(2) PS In this bedtime book Downing invites listeners to revel in the night with soft illustrations depicting four nocturnal animals (a fox, owl, mouse, and raccoon) and a complementary series of soothing quatrains describing their routines. A predominance of long vowels ("Cloudy moon, / rustling leaves. / Branches bow, / cool night breeze") creates a gentle narrative that shows the animals going about their usual nighttime activities of finding food ("Ripe, red fruit, / savory seeds. / Midnight feast, / tender leaves") and shelter ("Hurry home. / Almost there. / Warm and dry, / cozy lair"). Downing paces the reading through spacing on the page, most often with the quatrains split across the full-bleed, double-page spreads. Whenever the last two lines of a quatrain are composed solely of verbs ("scurry, pounce, flutter, glide"), she abandons that structure and scatters the verbs across the page, creating a quasi-labeling of the corresponding art, prompting a mild staccato-like reading that emphasizes the action. Various shades of blue and green appear throughout the watercolors and liquid acrylics as the night shadows create a muted, velvety palette.
Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

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