Monday, June 22, 2009

Kitten's First Full Moon: Caldecott Review #1


Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes is a story about a curious little kitten who sees the moon in the sky as a bowl of milk. The story is humorous and suspensful. Children stay connected to the story because of the strong story elements Kevin Henkes uses. The illustrations are black and white which lends focus on the text and the story line itself.

I have to honestly say that I would probably have enjoyed the book a little more had the illustrations been more catchy and colorful. I understand that the illustrations were presented like this to serve a sort of luminous view in terms of a midnight sky. And this book did win the Caldecott Award However, based on my experiences as a first grade teacher, I think young children would be even more drawn into this story if more colorful or shimmery illustrations were used. I did, however, love the story itself.

This book in comparison to other Kevin Henkes stories is much more subtle in terms of the illustrations. Many of his books such as the Mouse Book Series have very colorful exciting illustrations. This book, however, as explained above is simply black and white throughout. Despite the differences in the illustrations there are some similarities between this book and the other books he has written. This book is very similar to his other stories because of his ability to use wit and emotion within his story elements.


1 comment:

  1. My two kids don't mind the black and white illustrations. They love the story.

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