Over the Moon

There is a contagious exuberance to newcomer Katz's playfully stylized collage, gouache and colored pencil illustrations, which display a vibrant palette and all the energy of a flamenco dance. The story, too, has a joyous ring, as it follows a couple's airplane trip ""over the moon and through the night"" to a ""faraway place"" where they adopt a baby girl. The story has ample measures of fantasy (on the night their baby is born, the soon-to-be mom and dad each dream of the baby they had been ""longing for"") and lyricism (lying on a blanket watching the stars, the couple tell the baby, ""You grew like a flower in another lady's tummy until you were born""). The artwork accentuates the joy that bursts from the parents-to-be: when the happy phone call comes saying the baby has been born, they float above the town like Chagall characters. With its poetic flair and fanciful art, Katz's treatment is an interesting contrast to Allen Say's Allison (see review below), which presents the adoption issue from a more forthright perspective. Inspired by the author's own daughter, who was adopted from Central America, this is an ebullient tribute for families whose members may have come from a faraway place. Ages 2-8. (Sept.)