Caldecott Monday: Kitten’s First Full Moon

Kevin Henkes must work some kind of magic on awards committees, because he won the 2004 Caldecott Medal with a book that is, admittedly, adorable – Kitten’s Fire Full Moon is about a kitten who believes that the moon is a saucer full of milk and goes to increasingly cute lengths to get it – but somehow I expect something more of Caldecott book than “adorable.”

Maybe they were won over by the black and white illustrations. Everything looks more serious and important in black and white.

He also won a Newbery Honor medal for Olive’s Ocean, which, again, is a perfectly fine book, but also basically the book equivalent of Oscar bait. It’s about death! But in a hopeful, uplifting, live-life-to-the-fullest kind of way! And there’s some pretty nature, although not to the extent that anyone would gush “The ocean is practically another character!” as movie reviewers are sometimes wont to do. (I’m not sure if anyone says that about the ocean, actually. I’ve seen it about cities and about mountains. I recall quite a few Brokeback Mountain reviewers flinging themselves onto the mountain shots with glad cries, presumably because mountains have no sexualities to speak of.)

Anyway: a cute book about a kitten. Possibly trying a little too hard to make you go “Awwwwwww,” but still cute.