I' ve always chalked up my kids' creativity as one of their best qualities, but when a little one wakes up screaming TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW that there is a lyshup in her bed, I'm kinda at a loss.

I believe in imagination. My son's is very vivid. Sometimes my hubby wonders if it is a little too vivid. But I don't think so. I'm proud of his creativity.

In school, I was often told exactly what to do, so when I began working and went to college, I wanted to be told exactly HOW to get that A, exactly HOW to be that star employee. I remember many cases in college, when a teacher would present an assignment. Immediately, 20 hands would go up. How many pages should it be? How many sources should we use? etc.

You may have heard the story about the girl who was told to draw a pink five-petal flower in school. She wanted to draw a castle, or a garden, or a family. But she drew the pink five-petal flower instead. The next year, a teacher gives her a blank piece of paper and says to draw whatever she wants. She stews for a long time. Finally, in a burst of inspiration, she draws a pink five-petal flower.

So, today I share three picture books with vivid imagination in which the children have extraordinary experiences with the moon. Because of these books, we have been playing moon a lot lately, and let me tell you, pretending there isn't any gravity is pretty fun, if a bit exhausting.



Moon Plane by Peter McCarty is such a gorgeous book including many forms of transportation.

A little boy watches an airplane fly through the sky and wonders what it might be like to be inside. He imagines flying over trains, cars and boats, and up, up to the moon. At the end of his adventure, the boy's mothers is waiting for him.

With simple text to match the simple-yet-extraordinary drawings, this book is perfect for little ones. It is truly unique and intriguing.

In a word, Moon Plane is INTRIGUING.



Moonflute by Audrey and Don Wood is also uniquely gorgeous.

Although this book is much wordier than most I recommend, it has plenty of charm to keep me reading. And my son loves this book.

A little girl cannot find her sleep. She asks the moon if he stole her sleep. When a moonbeam falls toward her, she thinks the moon is losing its light. But the moonbeam falls into her hand and she sees that it is actually a flute. "Without thinking she brought the light up to her lips, placed her fingers on the holes, and blew...The moonflute made music--a special kind of music. It was not the 'tweedle-dee-dee toot' that just any old woodwind pipe makes. This music trickled like water over rocks, clinked like crystal chimes in the wind, and jingled like brass bells on a sleigh." The flute takes the girl across town, over the ocean where great whales spray her, over jungles, and home again. She is tired from her adventure and finds her sleep.

In a word, Moonflute is ENCHANTING.



Moongirl by Henry Selick is about Leon's trip to the moon.

Leon is night fishing one night, when he catches a fish-of-stars that pulls him, his dinghy, his jar of lightning bugs and his pet Earl the squirrel, up into the sky. The stars throw them right through the surface of the moon. Inside, they meet Moongirl, who keeps the moon lit with lightning bugs.

The illustrations, done by Peter Chan and Courtney Booker, are fitting for a book about a fascinating, emerald-eyed girl who lights the moon.

This book is also long for a picture book, but interesting enough, with night fishing, a giant cat, a merry-go-round that lights the moon, Gargaloons that want to darken the moon, and a brass key that makes Leon the next...Moonboy.

This is an imaginative story behind moon light, sure to spark some creativity. In a word, Moongirl is VIBRANT.