Saturday, February 4, 2012

the man in the moon

 

I am a lover of children's literature. I came to love these stories as the mother of three children who loved to be read to and then loved to read. Ron and I became very good friends with Dr. Seuss, Mercer Mayer, Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein and Stan and Jan Berenstain to name a few.

A good story is important to hold a child's attention, but in the early years, illustrations are essential. I have to admit that the more beautifully or uniquely illustrated a book is, the more inclined I am to read it over and over again. This is just one of the reasons that I will read Where the Wild Things Are to Viliamu whenever he asks even if it's 3 times in a row - wonderful story and amazing illustrations.

A children's author that we met along the way was William Joyce. His stories are sweet and funny, but his illustrations are like buttah! His books include George Shrinks, Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo, A Day with Wilbur Robinson, Santa Calls, and Bentley and Egg. One of the reasons that Ron loves A Day with Wilbur Robinson was because of the illustrations - one is a painting of a frog wearing Grandpa's dentures - it's priceless! Disney thought so too and made a full length animated feature film out of that book called Meet the Robinsons.

As the girls grew up and moved on to chapter books and reading to themselves, we lost touch with our friend, William Joyce. He has kept busy though. He created Rolie Polie Olie , a digitally animated cartoon for the Disney Channel and helped to create some of the characters in Toy Story - one of my FAVORITES.

He is now working on a series called The Guardians of Childhood. The first book in the series is called The Man in the Moon - it's a book for children aged 4 to 8. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is an imaginative fairy tale that tells the story of how the moon became a protective nightlight for the children of Earth. I found it when I was just browsing in Barnes and Noble one day and I bought it because I couldn't resist. I read it to Viliamu the first chance I got and he loved it. I give it my most heartfelt recommendation as well.

The next book in the Guardians series is Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King. I believe it will give us a good story about the origin of Santa Claus! This book is written for children aged 7 - 11 - a chapter book with much more text and less drawings. I just bought this book and will let you know what I think of it. The word is that it will be made into a movie! If so, I can't wait! It's been very nice to get reacquainted with my old friend, Mr. Joyce.

After I read this book, I think I will switch gears and try to read a grown up book for a change, but it's nice to get lost in children's fantasy books every now and then.

1 comment:

Don Meyer said...

If only more parents would read to their youngsters! And if you are going for grown up books, I have a number you might like to borrow.