The Love of the Moonlight

by Sarah Buckner, Paula Ortiz (Illustrator)

Overview

"If we loved, much like the moon, then would we be as kind?"

On a sleepless night, while gazing up at the skies, a child realizes that the world would be a better place if we acted with empathy and understanding. Around the world, we all look up at the same moon and it shines down on each person equally. The moon isn't afraid to share its sky with the stars; the moon knows the stars don't take away its ability to shine. This heartfelt, rhyming story is a great conversation starter on kindness and equality for children with illustrations capturing all walks of life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953859778
Publisher:	Soaring Kite Books
Publication date:	03/07/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	111 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sarah Buckner always had a passion for creative writing. Sarah uses her experiences, love of nature, and wild imagination to promote love, courage, and awareness through her storytelling.
Paula Ortiz lives in a coffee town in Colombia. The language of her brushstrokes is simple, candid, and sweet, creating a universe with characters who tell stories through beautiful metaphors.

Editorial Reviews

02/13/2023

Via loose rhymes, Buckner invites readers to view the moon as a model of peace, comfort, and love in this message-driven picture book. The moon, lines suggest, “never gets offended/ that we like to sleep at night,” it “spreads its love to all the creatures,” and it brings “comfort and light” amid the darkness. Shadow-filled gouache and digitally colored illustrations by Ortiz depict a metropolitan setting populated by people with varying body types and skin tones. While text seeks to portray the moon as a uniting entity, “colorblind” phrasing (“The moonlight makes us silhouettes,/ and people of one race,/ shining down on everyone/ equally with grace”) lessens the book’s impact. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

". . . Buckner invites readers to view the moon as a model of peace, comfort, and love in this message-driven picture book."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2022-12-14
A nighttime poem rooted in a city landscape, encouragement to be compassionate, and, of course, moonlight.

“If we loved, / much like the moon, / then would we / be as kind?” is the question—and challenge—posed here. Nameless people with varied skin tones and body types move through a city’s sleepy streets under the sliver of a moon. Moonlight is a peaceful comfort and combatant in the face of nighttime monsters, portrayed as the scary shadows cast by an ominous coat rack. The palette of blues, reds, greens, and black is expertly shaded, conveying a dreamy mood appropriate to the subject. In one scene, it is implied that if more people acted with love like the moon’s, a person wouldn’t be stuck pushing their broken car alone through the streets. On another page, the text “The moonlight makes us silhouettes, / and people of one race, / shining down on everyone / equally with grace” is paired with an image of a light-skinned person in bell-bottoms, a Black person with headphones and a hoodie, a portly White construction worker, and a tan-skinned skateboarder. It’s an odd choice that reflects a flattening, outdated, colorblind approach to race. Though for the most part the ideas about treating others with empathy are commendable and the illustrations are carefully crafted, it doesn’t make up for the text’s rather simplistic approach to the differences that define us. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Art shines but words wobble. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews