Kitten's First Full Moon (review)

Author:  Kevin Henkes
Title:  Kitten's First Full Moon
Publication Information:  New York: Greenwillow Books, 2004.

When Kitten sees a full moon for the first time, she mistakes it for a small bowl of milk and tries, over and over, to drink it up.  That is the story in Kevin Henkes' Kitten's First Full Moon.  Henkes' illustrations, with their stark black outlines and shades of gray over an off-white paper, give off a glowing, shimmery feeling that mirrors Kitten's sense of wonder as she attempts to reach the elusive bowl of milk.  The format of each picture matches the pace and direction of the action spelled out in the text.  When Kitten is chasing the bowl of milk, the lines of the text seem to pick up speed and the accompanying page has a series of five scenes stretched length-wise that echo this up-tempo pace.  When Kitten climbs up a tree, the illustrations are narrow and vertical on the page.  Each time Kitten fails to get to her bowl of milk, Henkes simplifies the drawings, leaving a great deal of white space on the page.  This slows the pace of the story, showing Kitten resting and plotting her next move.  Henkes repeats this cycle of action and rest many times throughout the story, giving the book a nice predictable format that children may easily follow.  Children will also love the repetition of "Poor Kitten!" each time she fails to get the milk, culminating in the satisfying "Lucky Kitten!" when she returns home in the end to find a bowl of milk waiting for her.