The Moon is a Silver Pond

by Sara Cassidy, Josée Bisaillon (Illustrator)

Overview

A young child skates, bakes and milks the cow while the moon wondrously transforms above.

The moon is a silver pond when seen through the trees. When they tend the cow, the moon is the milk at the bottom of the pail.

With stunning illustrations by Josée Bisaillon, this simple board book shows children that the way they see the world—by heart, mind and imagination—is just right. Reveling in metaphor, The Moon Is a Silver Pond encourages that magical leap of imagination and asks the reader to look at everyday objects from a different perspective.

Available in French as La lune est un étang d’argent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459818644
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 2 Years

About the Author

Sara Cassidy is a writer and editor. She is the author of 17 children’s books including Genius Jolene, winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, and Nevers, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Silver Birch Express Award, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, the Rocky Mountain Book Award and the Chocolate Lily Award. Sara also writes nonfiction and poetry for adults and works in communications for the BC Ministry of Health. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Josée Bisaillon has illustrated more than twenty-five children’s books, created numerous editorial illustrations for magazines and newspapers. She has been short-listed twice for the Governor General's Literary Award, and she won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for The Snow Knows. She lives outside Montreal with her family.

Editorial Reviews

Beautiful...The poetic language and cool colours are calming…A classic bedtime read.

Resource Links

Exquisitely illustrated...Both calming and stunning...Board books don’t often get this level of artistic care. Highly recommended for board book collections.

School Library Journal

Simple and elegant...Highly recommended for all board book collections.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Bisaillon's illustrations are truly stunning...A largely successful effort to convey metaphors to young readers.

Kirkus Reviews

★ “A volume sure to jump-start readers’ imaginations and create moon-y, luminous dreams.

starred review Publishers Weekly

2019-12-08
This richly illustrated board book uses the moon to explore metaphor.

Bisaillon's art takes center stage as readers follow along looking for the moon in different objects, beginning with the titular statement. Some are fairly obvious (a pail of milk, a shiny hubcap), while others are more obscure (a tooth, a pillow). These metaphors rely heavily on Bisaillon's artwork to communicate meaning to readers. This works out in the case of "the head of the nail," its shiny, pocked, gray surface clearly a miniature moon. For others, such as the "apple pie," it's harder to find the moon's likeness in the object depicted. Because the concept of a metaphor is a big one for board-book readers, when it's difficult to see an object's resemblance to the moon, the idea may be lost. Bisaillon's illustrations—in cut paper, pastels, watercolors, pencils, and digital collage—are truly stunning. In addition to the show-stopping opening and closing wintry forest scenes, a real standout shows a bird's-eye view of the moon's glow cast through a window across the child's bedroom. Humans are not represented with gender stereotypes (heads and facial features are largely excluded), but all visible skin reads as white. Overall, a largely successful effort to convey metaphors to young readers. Even though they don't all quite work out, the beautiful illustrations mostly make up for it.

Read this one for the lovely lunar illustrations. (Board book. 1-3)

Kirkus Reviews