Does your child know what it means to go owling? Do you? In Owl Moon, a little girl finally gets to accompany her father on an all day search in silence and cold for an owl sighting - a right of passage the little girl has clearly been looking forward to for years. The ink and watercolor pictures are simple, with plenty of open space, and the focus is on the words and their poetic structure and sound. The story reads like a poem, with carefully placed lines and descriptions like, Somewhere behind us a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad song. This is great exposure for your child to poetic and expressive writing.
This is a beautiful story of a father and daughter bonding in the outdoors. The story addresses some important lessons every child eventually has to learn. The child narrator explains that when one goes owling, you have to make your own heat, stay quiet, be patience, and be brave. Your child may have a specific experience in your family that they are looking forward to participating in when they are old enough, which you can compare to this book to help make a connection. Or perhaps your child will enjoy searching for the owl in each picture (there is not always one) and find the other winter wildlife hidden in the trees and brushes.
Because this book teaches patience and quiet, coupled with pictures of a day turning to night, I thought it would make a perfect bedtime story for my five year-old niece Emily. She loved the story and was inspired to go owling herself. No one in our family has been owling before, so I suggested that maybe shell be the first one to do so when she grows up. Emily beamed and agreed to go to bed probably to dream of owls.
--Audra