The Moonglow Roll-o-rama

DAV PILKEY has written and illustrated numerous award-winning books for children, including the mega-bestselling hit The Adventures of Captain Underpants and The Paperboy, a Caldecott Honor Book. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

PreSchool-Grade 2?If you've ever wondered "Where animals go,/At night when the light/Of the moon is aglow," here is one imaginative possibility. Zoo creatures escape from their cages, farm animals creep past sleeping towns, and pets leave behind collars and leashes, as they all head for the Moonglow Roll-O-Rama. Surrounded by shadowy evergreens decorated with colorful lights, the animals put on their red "rollin' shoes" and skate around the shiny wooden rink. As the moon works its special magic, they fly up into the "star-riddled" sky to skate "celestial ballets." When the enchantment wears off at dawn, the tired beasts hurry back to their everyday lives, to sleep all day and dream of the Moonglow. The rhyming text has a fast-paced rhythm that moves the story along quickly, despite some awkward sounding pairings. The vibrant watercolor-and-pencil illustrations grab the imagination and set the tone. Deep shades of pink, blue, and green wrap the story in magic and mystery. The full moon glows and flickers in almost every spread: bubble-gum pink on the cover, peach against a red sky, and bright yellow over the roller rink. A beautifully colored moon, shrouded in dark green clouds, provides an enchanted backdrop for the animal silhouettes that skate across the sky. For a pair of magical bedtime tales, suggest this along with Nicki Weiss's Where Does the Brown Bear Go? (Greenwillow, 1989).?Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.