Review: Man in the Moon

The Man in the Moon
By William Joyce
Published 2011 by Atheneum

We've all seen him and wondered about him - the Man in the Moon. But did you know he is one of the Guardians of Childhood? Acclaimed author/artist Joyce introduces an ambitious new project with this first title, to be followed by a variety of picture books and chapter books and ending with an animated feature film to be released in 2013, I believe. There was a lot of hype about this project at the ALA conference earlier this year in June and I had hoped to snag an ARC while I was there. Unfortunately, I missed out on it, instead picking up the finished book at the library recently. I pretty much loved everything about this book - the story is imaginative and sweet and I think it has great appeal to children of all ages. But even if the story wasn't so engaging and endearing, the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and could make up for pretty much any flaw. I want to hang them on my walls. They are lush and evocative - just beautiful. I'm pretty excited about this new project that Joyce is undertaking - it sounds like a really interesting idea. I'm very much looking forward to the next entry in the series.