And If the Moon Could Talk

"And if the moon could talk, / it would tell of evening / stealing through the woods / and a lizard scurrying home to supper." Kate Banks and illustrator Georg Hallensleben's lovely bedtime book spins a sleepy tale of what the moon would say if it could look down at a night-swept Earth and tell us what it sees. The book begins with a cozy inside view of a little pajama-clad girl and her stuffed white rabbit. Then we travel outside to a moon's view of the night world. Back inside, from the familiar objects on the bedside table--"a glass, a wooden boat, a starfish, too"--we move to "waves washing onto the beach, / shells, and a crab resting." Each rich, color-drenched scene complements the next--as Mama hands her child the toy rabbit, a lioness licks her cubs in a faraway den. "And if the moon could talk," the book concludes, "it would tell of a child / curled up in bed wrapped in sleep. / And it would murmur / Good night." From the creators of the beloved Baboon and Spider, Spider, this beautiful book--winner of the 1998 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for best picture book--has become one of our all-time favorite bedtime stories. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Georg Hallensleben, text © 1998 by Kate Banks. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.) (Ages 3 and older) --Karin Snelson