"The Moon over Star" by Dianna Hutts Aston, Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

Image Courtesy of: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/emiert/cskbookawards/img/2009/the_moon_over_star.jpg

Bibliographic Citation

Title: The Moon over Star

Author: Dianna Hutts Aston

Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney

Year of Publication: 2008

Publisher City: New York

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 978-0-8037-3107-3

Author Website: No Author Website

Illustrator Website: http://www.jerrypinkneystudio.com/

Media Used for Artwork: Watercolor

2009 Students’ List

Awards

·         American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award, 2009

Annotation

The story of a young narrator on the day that mankind first landed on the moon in 1969.  But the story is also about the narrator realizing more about her grandfather and his life.

Personal Reaction

                While this story is about a family in a town called Star watching the moon landing in 1969, there is another story going on as well, the story of Mae and her grandfather.  The family watches in amazement as the world changes by a group of men going to space, except for one member, Mae’s grandfather.  It is told how he thinks the space program is a waste of money.  As the story continues Mae begins to see how hard her grandfather has worked and where his views come from, and yet she still is fascinated and excited by the spacewalk.  One of the sweetest moments of the book is at the end when the grandfather tells his granddaughter to keep dreaming but to always remember the importance of home.

                On one level this book is about the moon landing, but on another it focuses on the people who were observing the event from a distance.  Readers can relate to the characters of Mae and her siblings because they have also been in the same position when dynamic things have occurred in the world that they were not directly involved in but where part of it none the less.  Some examples of this in recent history include: the events on 9/11, the death of Osama bin Laden, the tsunamis, the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, and so on.  Though they were not directly involved they still remember the news reports, such as Mae remembered Walker Cronkite saying “Man on the moon!” on the television.

                The watercolors in this book are beautiful.  The detail allows readers to actually see the age of the Grandfather that the narrator describes as well as the details of the families household and even the astronauts’ footprints on the Moon.

What is also interesting is the variety of images in the book.  The illustrations work with the narrative to visually tell the two stories that are going on: the walk on the Moon and Mae’s interaction with her grandfather.  With just a flip of the page a reader is brought to outer space then back to the family in the town of Star.  The visuals help to transition the reader back and forth between settings without jarring them by the suddenness.

One of the most powerful images is a double page picture of a rocket launching, which the children imagine while pretending to be astronauts in their front yard.  The reader is struck by the iconic nature of the image.  It is easy to understand how the children remember the many details of a rocket launch since they are currently living it and are bombarded by those detailed on television.

Use of Symbol: Star in this part of the novel is a symbol for Mae’s family and home.

Example: “Keep on dreaming, Mae,” he said.  “Just remember,

We’re here now together

On the prettiest star in the heavens.”

Use of Repetition: The story is divided into different sections and to indicate the beginning of a new section it starts with “Once upon a summer’s…”  It is the last word only that changes, showing the passage of time.