Half a Moon and One Whole Star

From Publishers Weekly

“Up above the earth so far/Hang half a moon and one whole star/Hang one whole star and half a moon:/Nighttime will be coming soon.” Half A Moon and One Whole Star is an exceptional children’s book: a work of art, both literary and visual. While Susan sleeps in her bed, the poem explores the world beyond: “Chickens in their hen house, drowsing/Owls and bats are just now rousing. . . . And walking down the street alone/Comes Johnny with his saxophone.” Pinkney’s vibrant watercolors depict a magical nighttime world, an apt reflection of clear, compelling verse. In an age when poetry is read less and less, this accessible, beautiful poem is particularly welcome.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2 As nighttime deepens, Susan, a young black girl, enters sleeptime with familiar sounds of neighbors and the comforting sounds of animals in the world outside her bedroom window. Her sleep-dream experience on a summer evening is a conversational interplay of her youthful imagination with family, neighbors, animals and nature’s musical background. What results is a soft symphony of sleep in which participants are both real and imagined. The rhyming text is enhanced by watercolor illustrations which fill some pages and dominate others. Bright foregrounds are balanced by darker backgrounds of starry night skies to reinforce awareness of the time for sleep and dreams. Ridiculous fun is made of the baker who is shown getting into bed with rolling pin, baked bread piled high and himself white with flour in his tall baker’s hat. Again, as in Katie in the Morning (Harper, 1983), Dragonwagon allows a young child to explore a special time of day in a manner which proves to be pleasant and appealing. Helen E. Williams, Univ . of Maryland, College Park
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.