Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me

This book is a very nice story about how a daughter asks her father for the moon to play with. As every father, he goes above and beyond to complete this duty in the book but it comes with a cost in which the moon disappears. I think this story is about understanding one's limits and the cost that they might come with. We always focus on the gain, but never on the loss. Great story.

Monica looked out her bedroom window and wished she could play with the moon, so she asked her father to get the moon for her.

Papa gets a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g ladder [a double page fold-out], and carries it toward a v-e-r-y h-i-g-h mountain.

Papa puts the v-e-r-y l-o-n-g ladder on top of the v-e-r-y h-i-g-h mountain [a single page fold-up], and climbs up and up and up.

Finally Papa reaches the moon [a double page fold-up and fold-down] and tells the moon that Monica wants to play with him, but he is too big. The moon tells Papa that he gets a little smaller every night and when he is small enough, Papa can take him to Monica.

Every night the moon gets smaller and smaller, and when he is just the right size, Papa takes him, climbs down the show more ladder [a single page fold-down], and takes the moon to Monica.

Monica is excited. She jumps and dances with the moon; she hugs the moon and throws it into the air. But the moon keeps getting smaller and smaller until it disappears. Then one night, a sliver of moon appears in the night sky. Each night, it grows . . . and grows . . . and grows.

Young readers will find much to appreciate in this delightful picture book. Vibrant colors, fold-out pages, and a fun-filled narrative all work together to show the waxing and waning of the moon wrapped around a charming story of a father’s great love for his child. The simple text will encourage beginning readers; the touching tale is sure to be read again and again.

Highly recommended. show less

This is a great book for teaching children about the different phases of the moon. Something i really enjoyed about this book was that when the moon was the biggest, the author made that page/illustration a pop up to create the illusion that the moon is very large. The text features the author used, like the pop up page, really attracts the readers attention and interest. Eric Carle was able to make learning about moon phases fun and exciting for children. The central message of this book was the different moon phases. The book describes and has illustrations on how the moon shrinks in size only to become bigger again. These phases then repeat over and over again.

Summary: In the book, the boy asks his father to get the moon for him. show more When the father first tries, he realizes that the moon is too big to catch. The moon then tells the father to not worry because it gets smaller and smaller everyday. The boy and his father realized the moon was right as they watched the moon shrink every night. However, the moon soon disappeared. They were then in shock as they learned the moon reappeared the next night and continued increase each night. show less

Monica wishes she could play with the moon so her dear Papa obliges her request by reaching for the moon. It isn't easy, but at last he succeeds in granting her wish.

This is a sweet, fantastical story about a father's love for his daughter. The child is not demanding but simply sees something she wants, and the father is happy to try and please her. A neat artifact of the printed medium is that this book has fold-out illustrations to indicate the length of the ladder Papa must use to reach the moon. It adds a little extra "magic" to this already enchanting read.

A child asks for the moon and papa acquiesces. But when it's too big to carry home, he must wait for it to get smaller. The novelty of lots of pages to unfold (including an impressive pop-out moon) probably makes this one more popular, but I found the story so-so.

“Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me” is a story about a young girl who wants to physically hold the moon in her hands. Although the events in the story could not realistically happen, it teaches children about the cycle of the moon. How it goes from a full moon to a crescent, depending on the time of year. Eric Carle’s stories may be simple, however they always have a bigger meaning. His goal is to teach readers something about life or nature, in all his books.

This book was quite a delight. Eric Carle does a superb job of creating synergy with the text and the illustrations. In the picture when Papa was climbing the ladder to the moon, Mr. Carle created a feeling of massiveness by making Papa very small and the ladder very tiny and long in contrast to the moon. The flow of the story was paced very well for our younger readers. The story was simple and to the point in order to not confuse. This book is also interactive, which is wonderful for younger and older children. There are several parts when the pages fold out to larger pages and may create wonder and excitement. This book is perfect for the introduction in a lesson about the phases of the moon. The illustrations of the different sizes show more of the moon that occurs will help illustrate in conjunction with a text or audial lesson. show less