Carle moves beyond the bounds of the conventional picture book format with his ingenious use of pages that fold out in all directions to show graphically the lengths Papa goes to reach the moon. “A father places a very long ladder on top of a very high mountain in an attempt to fulfill his daughter’s wish for the moon. This Eric Carle set based on the book, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, teaches your little one about the moon phases and helps develop his or her story.

Folding and refolding of the flaps will cause instant wear but this is, nevertheless, a striking display.” Besides being a low-key celebration of a father’s love for his daughter, the story has the added benefit of unobtrusively teaching young children about how the moon’s size seems to change through the weeks of the month. The same effect occurs for the almost poster-size display showing how large the imposing moon is, when the father acknowledges it’s now too big to bring home to his daughter. When the girl’s father takes a high ladder to climb up to the moon, the upward-extended flap shows how high the thin, desolate row of steps extends into the limitless sky. But the simple story of a girl whose father brings her the moon is also boosted by a slight gimmick: several of the pages fold up or down or open out to display extensive spreads of the happenings. Bold colors and collage like compositions mark this as distinctively Carle. Monica’s father fulfills her request by bringing the moon down from the sky after it’s small enough to carry, but it continues to change in size. Beautiful illustrations are enhanced by dramatic fold-out pages in this moving and imaginative tale of a father’s love for his daughter.

Eric carle moon