Kitten’s First Full Moon

Kevin Henkes has written and illustrated so many children’s books, and they are all great (Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse and Owen, while slightly dated, are frequent reads in our house), but his Kitten’s First Full Moon looks and feels nothing like the others. It’s done in four-color, but feels like black and white, and the lines are simple, computer-enhanced, almost Japanese–and they match the exceedlingly simple story beautifully. The text is a cross between an Asian fable and Todd Parr.

This is by no means a perfect book, but it’s fun to read and kids like it. (My daughter has wondered out loud why there are no colors, and whether she can color in the empty spaces–I think to her eye it does look a little like a coloring book–so it’s also good entree to talk about artists’ choices and different ways we can draw and illustrate, as well as a chance to search for other books that rely on simple line drawings instead of color illustrations.)