There was once a little raccoon who wanted to go out in the night -- to know an owl, to see if the moon is a rabbit, and to find out how dark is the dark. But his mother said, "Wait. Wait till the moon is full." So the little raccoon waited and wondered, while the moon got bigger and bigger and bigger. Until at last, on a very special evening, the moon was full.

Illustrations and rhyming text follow an assortment of creatures as they make their way to a nest, the shore, or a porch while the day comes to an end and the moon begins to rise.

In this atmospheric story, a group of kids play hockey on a frozen lake by moonlight. At once nostalgic and timely, this is a gorgeous book that will speak to readers young and old. The beaver flood has finally frozen--perfect ice, without a bump or a ripple. For the kids in town, it's Christmas in November. They wait, impatiently, for the right moment. Finally, it arrives: the full moon. They huff and puff through logging trails, farms, back roads and tamarack swamps, the powdery snow soaking pant legs and boots, till they see it--their perfect ice, waiting. And the game is on. When the moon Comes is steeped in tradition and nostalgia: for hockey, for childhood, for a simpler time. The beauty of the text is matched by the brilliant, rich illustrations that wonderfully capture the magic of a moonlit night in winter.

Exploring the profound impact of the experience of reading to children, Spitz discusses well-known children's books and reveals how they transmit psychological wisdom, convey moral lessons, shape tastes, and implant subtle prejudices. 23 illustrations.

Open the pages of so many children’s classics—Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, Mister Dog, The Cricket in Times Square, The Rescuers, the Little House books—and you will see page after page of the artistry that brought those stories to life. And behind the illustrations sparking the imagination of generations was a man who had an extraordinary existence. Born in New York City in 1912, Williams was educated in England and trained on the continent. After enduring the Blitz in London, he returned to New York, where he encountered the vibrant art and cultural scene of the 1940s. He made his home first in New York, then Aspen, and finally Guanajuato, Mexico and was married four times. During his life he met people who shaped and exemplified the twentieth century: Winston Churchill, E. B. White and Ursula Nordstrom, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and countless more. This is a biography of Garth Williams as an artist and an illustrator. It is the story of how his journey led him from winning sculpture awards at the Royal College of Art in London, to capturing the essence of frontier life in the American West, to rendering the humanity of beloved animal characters. The biography also explores the historical context that affected Williams’ life and art, both in the old world and the new. Against the frenetic pace of post-war suburbanization, Williams’ illustrations nurtured a connection with the animal world and with a vanishing agrarian life. By tapping into American themes, Williams spoke to a postwar yearning for simplicity. Complete with more than 60 illustrations, this is the first full biography of Garth Williams written with the help and cooperation of his family.

In this study, the engaging art created by children’s author Margaret Wise Brown receives the critical attention it deserves as a lasting contribution to American children’s literature. Through analysis of her dozens of titles published during the height of western Modernism, this scholarly text shares Brown’s importance and impact from the perspective of Brown’s work, rather than biographically. Moving beyond such popular titles as Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny into deeper cuts reveals how Brown’s oeuvre bridges multiple disciplines, including writing, visual art, philosophy, and music. Her projects successfully experiment with artistic collaboration and synesthesia as a natural expression for a child readership while both contributing to and reflecting high Modernism amidst the two World Wars. The quality of Brown’s writing and the maturity of her themes reveal respect for her child audience and recommend her work to the generations of readers who followed her early death. As this book demonstrates, Margaret Wise Brown remains one of the truly great authors of children’s literature.