The Moon Inside

July 15, 2016
A young girl's fear of the dark is quieted when she explores the night with her mother in Feder (Daisy's Big Night, 2014) and Sicuro's (Bright Sky, Starry City, 2015) first collaboration.Every evening, Ella dreads the arrival of the dark. As the sun begins to set, she goes through her house with her mother, turning on lights to replace the sun's yellow glow and keep the dark at bay. When Ella laments the sun's departure and the disappearance of yellow, her favorite color, from her world, her mother coaxes her outside into the twilight and encourages her to take a look around. Ella sees the moon first, and once she really starts to look, it's not long before she realizes that yellow hasn't disappeared after all. Blinking fireflies and the moon itself fill the night with Ella's favorite color, and she finds that the quietness of night is special, too. When she returns inside, Ella still turns on a few lights, but she welcomes the moon as a nighttime companion until the sun returns. Transitioning from spreads awash in warm daylight to lush and vibrant night scenes, Sicuro's watercolors lend a quiet, emotional depth to Feder's unhurried narrative. Ella's race and ethnicity are not explored in either text or images, which depict her and her mother with paper-white skin and dark hair, but her discovery will appeal to any readers who have ever found themselves embracing a new part of their world. A lovely addition to any bedtime repertoire. (Picture book. 2-5)

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October 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 1-Ella is afraid of the dark. She clutches her mother's hand as dusk falls, and flicks on many lights throughout her house. One evening, while Ella rues the disappearance of the sun and the absence of yellow from the nighttime sky, her mother encourages her to take a peek outside. The child is pleasantly surprised to find glowing fireflies and a golden moon illuminating the darkness: "It's my favorite color-only quieter." As Ella and her mother sit side by side on the front porch swing, they listen to the sounds of the night. Sicuro's striking watercolor and ink illustrations move from domestic daytime scenes, accented with splashes of yellow wallpaper, sunny flowers in a vase, and lemon slices on a plate, to a velvety black background revealing twinkling stars and elegant nocturnal creatures. Having faced her fears, Ella gains a newfound appreciation for the stillness of the dark. Back inside her house, the little girl turns on fewer lights, content in knowing that "the night belong[s] to the moon, quietly glowing through her bedroom window." VERDICT A simply luminous and reassuring selection to share before bedtime, again and again.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ont., Canada

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
-Every night, when the dark entered the house...Ella grew afraid.- But after Ella's mother takes her outside to experience the sounds and sights of nighttime--the bright moon, the crickets chirping--she's not scared of the dark anymore. The quiet bedtime story is accompanied by soothing mixed-media illustrations in a palette of mostly black, gray, and yellow (Ella's favorite color).

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)