Module 3: Owl Moon
Summary: A father and daughter go out in a snow covered forest in the middle of the night to go owling. The
daughter narrates the story and exhibits great patience and
self-discipline as she waits for an owl to appear.
Citation: Yolen, J. (1987). Owl
Moon. New York: Philomel Books.
Impression:
The book has a soothing quality with its dark illustrations of a moonlit
forest. The illustrations are fantastically
detailed, and the forest landscape on the page leaps from the page. Despite the
darkness of the forest, there is no fear because of the soothing repetitive words
and the father’s strong presence. The repetitive wording and the themes of patience add to the mood
of tranquility that the illustrations and the plot creates. The little girl’s
self-discipline is a great role model for children to realize that good things
come to those who wait.
Review: A rare reappearance of a fine illustrator (Rascal,
Julie of the Wolves), whose watercolors here follow a father and small child as
they seek an owl beneath a winter moon. In Yolen's spare, graceful text, the
child recounts their trudge through snow, long past bedtime, with Pa repeating
an owl call until he is rewarded with a reply plus the sighting of the owl, for
a minute or "maybe even a hundred minutes." Schoenherr catches the
deep, misty blues and soft browns of night--contrasting them to the snow's
stark white so sharply that the bite of the cold is palpable--and hides a wild
creature in tree or wall in almost every vista of the farmland landscape. Yolen
hints at a philosophical overtone ("When you go owling you don't need
words or warm or anything but hope. . .the kind of hope that flies on silent
wings. . ."), but the shared experience of the mysterious, natural
night-world seems the more important message of this lovely, quiet book.
(2012). Owl Moon [Review of the book Owl Moon]. Retrieved from: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Suggestion: Librarians could use this for a book talk about
Caldecott winners and introduce other award winning books.
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