Field Trip to the Moon

by John Hare

Overview

It's field trip day, and students are excited to travel on their yellow spaceship bus from their space station to the moon in this wordless picture book.

An ALA Notable Children's Book
A Golden Duck Notable Picture Book

Climb aboard the spaceship bus for a fantastic field trip adventure to the moon!

Once their bright yellow ship lands, students debark and set out with their teacher to explore. They jump over trenches and see craters and mountains on the moon's surface and even Earth in the faraway distance.

But when one student takes a break to draw some pictures and falls asleep, they wake up to discover that the rest of the class and the spaceship are gone. How the student passes the time waiting to be rescued makes for a funny and unexpected adventure that will enchant children all over the galaxy.

With rich atmospheric art, John Hare's wordless picture book invites children to imagine themselves in the story—a story full of surprises including some friendly space creatures. A perfect complement to discussions and lessons on the moon landing.

Don't miss Field Trip to the Ocean Deep, another wordless adventure!

Recipient of the Pied Piper Literary Prize
An ILA-CBC Children's Choice!
A Pennsylvania Center for the Book Baker's Dozen Selection!
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Best Book of the Year
A Bank Street Best Book of the Year - Outstanding Merit
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823451128
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Series:	Field Trip Adventures
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	247,914
Product dimensions:	9.89(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.13(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

John Hare is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. His first book for children, Field Trip to the Moon, was a Golden Duck Notable Picture Book and an ALA Notable Picture Book. Its companion books are Field Trip to the Ocean Deep, also a Golden Duck Notable Picture Book, and Field Trip to Volcano Island, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. John lives in Gladstone, Missouri with his wife and two children. You can visit him at johnhareart.com.

Editorial Reviews

"A close encounter of the best kind."—Kirkus Reviews

★ "[The] sly but easy-to-follow linear narrative is told through a well-paced mix of panels (circular, horizontal, and vertical), full-pages, and double-page spreads, with pops of color (the yellow of the school bus–like space-ship, the color-filled crayon box) that are highly effective. The moon creatures, despite their minimalist features, are very expressive, as is the child—whose face remains hidden behind a space-mask until the last page."—The Horn Book, Starred Review 

★ "Hare’s picture book debut is a winner. . . . His gray yet surprisingly detailed moonscape is both the setting and a character in its own right; his depiction of the aliens as gray humanoids amazed by color is genius. A beautifully done wordless story about a field trip to the moon with a sweet and funny alien encounter; what’s not to like?" —School Library Journal, Starred Review

"A perfectly paced paean to imagination, Hare’s auspicious debut presents a world where a yellow crayon box shines like a beacon."—Booklist


"A clever and noteworthy tale of lunar adventure."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

06/10/2019

Told through wordless spreads, a classroom of child astronauts takes a yellow school bus rocket to their destination. One student lags behind the others, sketch pad and crayons in tow, and finds a quiet moon rock to sit behind while drawing (and napping). In a gaspworthy moment, the young astronaut realizes that the ship has left. But the consummate artist continues drawing, attracting the attention of a small group of friendly aliens—whose skin tones perfectly match the dusky gray of the moon’s surface and who marvel at the crayons’ varied hues. Readers may have mixed feelings about the eventual rescue (the aliens seem like a lot of fun), but a final spread showing the child’s face for the first time (a shaggy-haired kid with just a single gray crayon left) makes the story all the more relatable. A clever and noteworthy tale of lunar adventure. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/01/2019

PreS-Gr 2—Hare's picture book debut is a winner. His wordless tale in acrylic paint depicts a typical class field trip to the moon—the school bus ship, the trek across a gray lunar surface, the leap over a big chasm, a lecture on craters, and the one kid who lags behind. In this case the kid who lags behind is armed with crayons and a sketch pad. After wandering off to sketch the Earth and accidentally napping, the child awakens to discover the bus ship leaving! Despite some initial panic, the youngster settles in to draw and wait for its return, unknowingly attracting a crowd of gray aliens fascinated by the colored crayons. A hilarious fun fest of aliens drawing—on paper, on rock, on one another—ensues until the bus returns and they fade back into the moon dust. The happy reunion is marred only when the teacher notices the drawings on the rock that the child must remove before they leave. It is only on the final page that the face of the protagonist is revealed to be that of a dark-haired girl. Hare flawlessly and convincingly depicts the emotions of his characters — the desire to draw, the panic of being left behind, the joy of being remembered, and everything in between—all while they are wearing space suits with black, opaque face shields. His gray yet surprisingly detailed moonscape is both the setting and a character in its own right; his depiction of the aliens as gray humanoids amazed by color is genius. VERDICT A beautifully done wordless story about a field trip to the moon with a sweet and funny alien encounter; what's not to like? A must-have for most libraries.—Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH

School Library Journal

2019-02-06

Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn't as lifeless as it looks.

While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare's wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.

A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews