SUN AND MOON

Boy meets girl in this contemporary parable about the strength of love and friendship. Two giants inhabit the planet but never meet—one is a girl “who was so tall her feet were on the ground and her head was in the heavens,” the other a boy with his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds. Like night and day, the two wander endlessly in search of a companion their own size. In their loneliness, they can’t find each other, until an eclipse brings the personified sun and moon together, “face to face.” Symbolically, the girl gives the precious gift of a star she has caught in her pocket to help with his fear of the dark, and the boy plucks a cloud from the sky to shade the sun because she is unaccustomed to bright daylight. Hand in hand, “the boy and girl learned to laugh, and they learned to play,” conveying their message of belonging. Computer-scanned images—hair, fabric, photos, pieces of painting—combine in other-worldly montages of the giants’ lives. The sentiments are lovely, but the tale is driven more by the art and symbolism than plot. (Picture book. 4-7)