Amazon.com Review
A young birthday boy, falling asleep in sight of his new crystal globe from Grandma, takes a magical night flight over New York City. Casting his fishing rod at the globe-become-moon, the boy sails out into the sky, into a surreal world where stone lions yawn on the steps on New York's public library, flying cowboys lasso faded stars from the sky, and enchanted ladies float and dance over a wide avenue. All the friendly, dream-like people offer encouraging words--"You're just in time," "You're almost there"--but the moon lifts him away before he ever gets an answer to his many questions. The hints get broader as the evening wears on, and the party that awaits him on the Statue of Liberty is not so much a surprise as a joyful reunion with all his new friends... and his beloved grandmother.
Like David Wiesner's wordless Sector 7, Tuesday, and Free Fall, illustrator Brian Wilcox's surreal, fanciful landscapes are implied from dizzying perspectives, allowing the mesmerized reader to become lost in the gray tones of his pencil drawings. Coauthors Wilcox and Lawrence David create a dreamy picture book sure to inspire imaginative flights of fancy in readers of all ages. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
For Wilcox's first outing, a picture book done entirely in pencil, he teams with David (Beetle Boy), and the adventure unfolds on a big stage. A boy receives a magic globe from his grandmother as a birthday gift, and Wilcox visually suggests its transformation into the moon in the sky; he then asks the moon to carry him to his grandmother. He drifts through surreal landscapes in which his toys, now large as life, zip and zoom past St. Patrick's Cathedral and through Central Park, gradually revealing Grandma's home as Manhattan. A series of unanswered questions (" `You're almost there,' a man told me. `Almost where?' I asked. But the moon lifted me away before I got an answer") hint at a surprise birthday party on top of the Statue of Liberty and a reunion with Grandma. The spreads of nighttime New York teem with life tightrope artists teeter high above the streets, water towers launch off rooftops, the public library's lions yawn and stretch but, unfortunately, the details, all in shades of gray, sometimes appear muddied. The nameless narrator seems a little indistinct, too. The city itself is the real star of the story, and Wilcox successfully brings its grandeur and allure to life. All ages.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
