Module 3--Owl Moon by Jane Yolen




Source: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Owl-Moon-id-0399214577.aspx

 Summary:

A young girl tells the story of the night she went owling with her father one winter night.  It is a family tradition she has waited to experience with her father for a long time.  They quietly and hopefully crept through the woods and eventually saw an owl.  Her father did an owl call then the owl, seemingly majestic, flew away.  The girl returned home with her father, happy.

APA Reference:

Yolen, J. (1987).  Owl moon. New York, NY: Philomel Books.

My Impressions:

Owl Moon's Caldecott Medal was well-earned.  The illustrations' softness and cool colors emoted a majestic and peaceful mood.  I was very impressed with the perspective the illustrator, John Schoenherr, took with the drawings.  The smallness of the father and girl emphasized the vastness of the woods in which their owl was hidden.  I also loved the text.  Yolen created a story about a tradition held between a father and his children.  Better yet, she created a story that shows how much the child treasured the experience with her father, which is a very sweet story to tell.  As I read it, I immediately knew I wanted a copy of this book in my future library.

Professional Reviews:

"The play of shadows, the contrast between light and dark, and the way in which the woods make an an irregular frame around the words all contribute to the total unity of the book.  This is a loving book that readers, male or female, young or old, will want to make a part of their lives."

Vandergrift, K.E. (1987). [Review of the book Owl Moon, by J. Yolen]. School Library Journal, 34(4), 78.  Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/

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.

[Review of the book Owl Moon, by J. Yolen]. (1987).  Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com

Library Uses:


Read in the U.S.A.:  Use this book in a display of authors around the country.  Choose one author from each state.  Jane Yolen would be the author representing Massachusetts.  The book jackets can be displayed around a very large United States map. This would be great to do when students are learning about the 50 states as part of their curriculum.