Picture Book

Kitten's First Full Moon - Kevin Henkes  

Henkes, Kevin.  2004. KITTEN'S FIRST FULL MOON. Ill. by Kevin Henkes.  New York: Greenwillow Books.  ISBN  0060588284

This charming tale of a cute kitten in pursuit of an ever moving bowl of milk will please readers young and old. With every attempt to capture the bowl of milk Kitten meets with disaster.  Readers will be pleased that her perseverance leads to a positive outcome despite all the hardships.

Henkes' simple, repetitive text creates an easy to read story that any child can understand. The repetition of "Poor Kitten" throughout the story sets the reader up to be the cheerleader for Kitten.  Kitten's determination despite her failures bring the adage "at first you don't succeed, try, try again" to life. Henkes' use of white space reflects the thought process of Kitten.  As Kitten is thinking the white space is large, but as Kitten "pounces" into action white space is decreased taken up by larger images of Kitten in pursuit of the huge bowl of milk.

The charcoal sketches aid in establishing the night setting and allow the reader to visualize Kitten discovering her new world during a full moon.  The story read in pictures and the story read in text are equally matched and creates an energy and flow that easily leads to the positive ending.

This story appears to be simplistic in text with much repetition, but when paired with the illustrations it provides a story with substance. Readers will learn the importance of exploring the world we live in and determination.  Through a frisky kitten, readers will notice the way we all discover our world -- one mistake at a time.


Caldecott Medal Book
Kirkus Review: "artful in its gracelessness and naïveté, just like a kitten"
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL top 100 picture books number 25

*Have children write or draw a story about their own pet
*Have children create a picture of kitten using charcoal
*Other books for children about the moon:
Rylant, Cynthia. 2004. LONG NIGHT MOON. Ill. by Mark Siegel. NewYork, NY: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0689854262
Simon, Seymour. 2003. THE MOON.  New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0689835636