Willoughby & the Moon
PreSchool-Grade 2—In this follow-up toWilloughby & the Lion(HarperCollins, 2009), Foley offers another stunning visual look into a child's imagination. This time, Willoughby struggles to go to sleep because the moon has disappeared and the night is too dark. Perplexed and a bit frightened, he sees a light coming from his closet and, inside, discovers the moon with a giant snail on it, looking for his lost silver ball. The search for the ball leads the duo through all the moon's nooks and crannies and eventually back to the security of Willoughby's own bed. In the tradition of Crockett Johnson'sHarold and the Purple Crayon(1955) and Maurice Sendak'sWhere the Wild Things Are(1963, both HarperCollins), this story wholeheartedly buys into a child's imagined world as an escape from an uncertain reality. But truly it is the illustrations that shine. The two-tone pictures layer black and silver ink in vibrant Pop-style line drawings over digital prints to transport readers into Willoughby's dark world, where he searches for light. The level of detail in the snail's map of the moon alone sets the book above most of its bedtime-story contemporaries. Foley's latest is a must-have addition to the canon of stories of little boys struggling to go to sleep.—Sarah Townsend, Norfolk Public Library, VA(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.