Moon Pops

Product Information

I liked the story well enough, though the author’s note at the beginning feels necessary for the story to make some sense when it kind of derails with some rabbits midway through… that part felt like a non sequitur to me. Marcie, an LE teacher, enjoyed Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (one of my favorites), Leave the World Behind by Rumann Alam, and Math Games with Bad Drawings by Ben O rlin. It's a Korean folktale, but I don;t think it can be too old as freezers, air conditioning haven'[t been around too long.

This (according to publisher description) is the first picture book for Heena Baek to be published in English (translated by Jieun Kiaer). A retelling of the Korean folktale, "The Legend of Moon Rabbit," with an urban setting and with a modern twist. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Moon Pops”, written and illustrated by Heena Baek, and translated from Korean by Jieun Kiaer, is a modern spin off of the old Korean folktale of the Moon Rabbit. English translation available here (but you can't really see the amazing pictures, alas): https://www.This modern, whimsical spin on a classic Korean folktale transports readers with eye-catching, detailed artwork and a magical story . The artist uses real figurines and perfect lighting to capture the most pleasant way to portray this story. Again, publisher description says: “illustrated in otherworldly mixed-media” and it is otherworldly for certain. Granny’s solution for getting the rabbits back to their home on the moon also involves shimmering lights and wondrous, sparkling orbs that shine against the cloudy, starless night sky.

The art is a mix of photo backgrounds and cut out drawings of anthropomorphic wolf-like creatures in the foreground. And my colleague Mary recommends Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – A book about creativity, friendship set against the world of gaming. The art style feels like a stop-motion collage with dioramas for the background and miniature objects and black and white illustrations for the animal characters. One of the grannies struggling with the heat decides to make ice pops out of the melting moon, but while that does keep everyone cool, it leaves the rabbits from the moon homeless.Astrid Lindgren Award winner Baek draws gently on Korean folklore while keeping her feet firmly planted in the modern day, with some delicious visual texture. This story shows the compassion of a stranger to her neighbors and her creativity while trying to solve the problem of her neighbors struggling with the extreme heat. When Granny discovers that the moon is melting—the dripping luminescent moon makes for a surreal and indelible image—she catches some drops in a bucket and whips up a batch of glowing moon pops, which cool everyone off.

She collects the melting moon in a pot and when the power goes out decides to make it in to moon pops to cool herself and the rest of the apartment complex cool. The book starts with a reminder that in Korean folklore they say the image in the moon looks like a rabbit with a mortar and pestle. The entire book is marvelously crafted with a languid slowness of the heat at first and then the drama of the melting moon. The summer heat is oppressive—“too hot to do anything”—and the sense of claustrophobia and sweat is palpable.

Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. All is finally quiet, until two rabbits come knocking at the door—they have come from the moon, which has melted away. An intriguing premise in which the moon phases occur by melting, and then fertilizing a new plant that releases a tiny grain of new moon. And this summer, I read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, which might be one of the best books I’ve read in a long time! Granny gathers the moon drops and turns them into popsicles to keep her neighbors cool, but she keeps a few drops.