Moon Pops

Product Information

A strange and delightful tale made for lingering over—and perfect for reading with your own moon pop . On a very hot summer evening, when nothing seems to work to keep a group of neighbors cool, the moon starts melting. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. It’s wonderful to walk down the Lower Elementary hallway and see the brightly colored art the students did in response to their summer book, Moon Pops by Heena Baek. In fact, after reading it, I went to H Mart in Cambridge so I could walk around and inhabit the book’s setting for a little bit.

The paper figures are various animals who all live together in a crowded apartment building with their own interesting apartments to look into as well. She is an internationally acclaimed Korean children’s book author and illustrator and has won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. This retelling of the Korean folktale of the Legend of the Moon Rabbit is the perfect book to read on a sweltering summer evening. That’s when the two moon rabbits showed up and Granny had to figure out how to rebuild their moon home using the last drops of the moon. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!The moon is melting, but Granny saves the day in this picture book originally published in South Korea and translated into English by Jieun Kiaer. Perfect for a bedtime story on a hot summer night, this entertaining tale offers much to be discovered on multiple readings; a strong title to share widely at story hours. According to Korean legend, a rabbit lives in the moon, and this story puts a cute twist on the idea of the makeup of the moon.

These aliens just show up after a night of the apartment complex having a moon pop (the melted moon frozen into popsicles) party. Granny’s solution for getting the rabbits back to their home on the moon also involves shimmering lights and wondrous, sparkling orbs that shine against the cloudy, starless night sky. I loved the characterization of Granny as someone who can solve any problem, whether it is the heat or the loss of the rabbits’ home on the moon. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. She said the book “aligns really well with Montessori principles” and suggested it may be a good book to guide a parent discussion.The art style feels like a stop-motion collage with dioramas for the background and miniature objects and black and white illustrations for the animal characters.