The Moon Jumpers

This book captures the whimsical joy of a summer night, in which four children play in their backyard with only the moon for their light. Short and simple, this book has an almost dream-like quality while still being completely relatable to young children (and the young at heart, as we remember carefree summer evenings catching fireflies and whatnot until our parents called us in for the night). The illustrations vary between being simple black-and-white sketches on the pages with text and being full-color, full-page affairs on the following page spreads.

This is a wonderful tale of children who leave the house to go out and dance and frolic in the moon.

Calling themselves the moon jumpers, they twirl and swirl and play silly monster games.

Singing and dancing, they celebrate life and the lovely moon glow.

After reading a number of books containing Sendak's illustrations, I was pleasantly surprised that the only darkness in this tale was the shadows cast on the lawn from playful delight.

Sendak can indeed get a little heavy at times, and thus it was a pleasant surprise to absorb the beauty of a fun story with beautiful illustrations.

It is summer time and reading this book brought back childhood memories of playing tag, of catching fire flies and placing them in glass jars, of watching for show more bats for fear they would swoop in my hair, and I remembered the sound of the Mister Softee ice cream truck and how anxious we were to get a treat.

And, I remember the call of mothers throughout the neighborhood beckoning children to come when the day is done.

I'll obtain copies of this to give as gifts to the lovely children in my life. show less

The present tense telling of the story is unique and makes the reader feel like part of the beautiful world the author and illustrator have created. Every two pages there is a textless double page spread that is serene and peaceful. This is a simple book about siblings frolicking in the night until it is time for bed. This is a beautiful bedtime story.

Yes, I laughed with recognition. So this text/illustrations did capture those feelings of being young and outdoors playing after dark. I was glad when the pages had the color illustrations. I didn’t like the black & white ones here as much even though on their own some of them were wonderful; going back and forth between color and not color felt jarring to me though. Very poetic text and many of the illustrations were lovely and evocative. I’m not normally a huge Sendak fan but I did enjoy the pictures here, especially the dreamy facial expressions of the children and the colorful nature scenes, and others too. It’s a lovely book. I think children will be enchanted by this book. It would make a great bedtime story. 3-1/2 stars

This book about children outside on a summer night, is a pure delight. It invokes childhood memories and reminds us of the euphoria of those days. Children will love the whimsical nature of the book. The illustrations are stunning...while I'm not a huge fan of Sendaks authorial work, his artwork is top notch.

I would recommend this book to everyone....old and young alike.

Four kids frolic under the moon before bedtime. Good for them. Dull for me.

This book is great due to the illustrations and the personification used. The illustrations are awesome because every other page is just a picture with no words. This allows for a reflection of the previous page, and a reinforcement of what happened on the previous page. This book could be great for early readers, read aloud, or ELL. I also really like the personification that the author uses. For example, "The sun is tired. It goes down the sky into the drowsy hills." This gives each and every element of the story human-like characteristics and makes the story more intriguing. The purpose of this story is to entertain and tell a story.