Willoughby and the Moon by Greg Foley

3-Year-Old: Mixed
Mom: Thumbs up

Summary: At bedtime, Willoughby sees the moon in his closet.  He goes through the door and finds a snail on the moon who has lost this ball.  Willoughby tries to help the snail find his ball and in doing so does things the snail is reluctant to do.  But when the snail goes into a dark cave, it is Willoughby who is reluctant to go.  He finally decides to be brave and follow the snail into the cave.  He is rewarded by finding his snail friend (who had found his ball in the cave) and playing a wonderfully fun game of ball.

Review: I quite liked the book.  In the story, the main character seems fearless compared to the snail, but later, must face his fear of the dark.  By confronting his fear, he is rewarded and at the very end is able to rest peacefully.  This is a message that I would like my son to learn so I felt happy with the 'moral of the story' depicted as it was.  Because of the way the message was portrayed, I felt that the storyline was more sophisticated compared to so many other children's books and I liked this. The art has no color - the pictures are black, white and silver.  At first, I thought this style was a bit stark for a children's book, but given that the pictures are interesting, I now think it works well with the style of the book.

My son usually just listens when I read, but with this book, he asked me questions and made many comments.  For example, he pointed out the moons when we first opened the book.  I talked to him about the phases of the moon.  He pointed to the round things that were hidden when the snail and Willoughby were were searching for the ball.  He asked me what a space pod was.  He didn't ask me to read it again immediately, though (an immediate "again" is my thumbs up indicator). He did ask me to read it again later in the day ... but the next day when I ask him which books we should return to the library, he picked this one.  I asked him why and he said that he got sad when Willoughby wouldn't go into the cave (That's the part when Willoughby is frightened of the dark.)  So instead of remembering the happy ending, he seemed to fixate on Willoughby's fear.  Maybe I'll try to read it again to him when he's older.