MOONPOWDER

Rocco crafts a set of copper-colored retro dreamscapes for this tale of a lad who shakes off his own recurrent nightmare by repairing the celestial machinery that creates sweet dreams—or rather, the titular powder that produces them. Clad in pajamas and a leather pilot’s cap, young Eli leaves his bedroom, flying into the night sky with the importunate Moon aboard a “helio-rocket-copter” of his own design. Having checked huge, geared wheels, riveted tanks and antique gauges, he ventures at last into Mother Nature’s jumbled closet for a pinch of Moonpowder to prime the empty pump, then wakes in the morning after a soaring dream to greet his uniformed father stepping off the bus. Partly related in wordless panels reminiscent of David Wiesner’s stories, this offering will draw fans of other elaborately illustrated Moon tales such as Lynda Gene Rymond’s Oscar and the Mooncats (2007) and Dean Morrissey and Stephen Krensky’s Crimson Comet (2006). In keeping with its closing images of Eli’s returning dad, it is topically enough dedicated “to the children of soldiers everywhere.” (Picture book. 5-8)