Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (Genre: Picture Book)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Henkes, Kevin. 2004. KITTEN'S FIRST FULL MOON. Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0060588284

PLOT SUMMARY
A hungry young kitten thinks that a full moon in the sky is a bowl of milk. She chases the bowl, tumbles down the stairs and even climbs up the tree and gets all wet when she jumps into the reflection of the moon in water. She gets discouraged but finally gets a bowl of milk waiting for her at the porch.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This is a very cute story of a kitten that has a message attached to it. The kitten who tumbles, chases, climbs and jumps teaches a child to explore, imagine and discover his surrounding. The book is lyrical and simple with a very happy ending to it but I did feel that the kitten appeared to be very helpless in the entire story and suffered a lot to get a bowl of milk for her.
Henkes’s illustrations are beautiful. The black, white and gray are the only colors used which help the reader to focus on the kitten and the moon only. I did feel that some illustrations were meant for older children
This is a wonderful story with large and bold illustrations that children can connect with. It also sparks the imagination of young children.

AWARDS WON
ALA Notable Children’s Book
Bulletin Blue Ribbon (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)
Caldecott Award
Charlotte Zolotow Award
Starred Review in School Library Journal : “An irresistible offering from the multifaceted Henkes.”

CONNECTIONS
*This book could be read by parents, caregivers, teachers and librarians to young children. It contains a very cute and simple story with beautiful illustrations.
*Related Books
Henkes, Kevin. 2007.A GOOD DAY. Greenwillow Books. ISBN 9780061140181
Rohmann, Eric. 2002. MY FRIEND RABBIT. Roaring Brook Press. ISBN 1596436638
*This book could be read aloud and the children could be encouraged to think what they feel would happen next. They could also be asked to share their experience about their efforts to achieve something.
*Children could also be encouraged to draw a colorful picture of any part of the story to illustrate how they felt about the story.