Hello, Moon!

Bedtime can be lonely, even with a pet cat for company, so a boy decides to chat with the moon outside his window. His questions, and the imaginary play they inspire, range from quotidian (“Do you like chocolate ice cream?) to philosophical (he imagines Moon has a “billion, trillion gazillion” friends, “But they’re all so far away”). This is a sweet book, with lush, dense acrylics—Cort’s gorgeously blue night sky makes every other color glow—and a comforting message that even a literal dark night of the soul will give way to a more confident sense of self (“I’m here” the boy tells the moon before drifting off, “Anytime you want to talk”). But despite the conceit, Simon (the Horrid Henry books) and Cort (Aliens Love Underpants!) don’t make the Moon much of a focal point. When the boy wonders whether the Moon likes to pretend it’s a pirate, it dons an eye patch, but most of the time it’s absent from the boy’s reveries altogether or a placidly smiling figure in the sky, more distantly maternal than buddy-buddy. Ages 3–5. (June)