Margaret Mahy, ill. David Elliot (reissue)
Random House, 32 pages, paperback, NZ$20
The combination of Margaret Mahy’s words and David Elliot’s
pictures was always a dream-team event. The Moon and Farmer McPhee (2010) was
the last book the talented duo created and it is splendid to see the award-winning
picture book has been re-issued as a (really sturdy) paperback, ready to
introduce a new generation of readers to its die-cut surprises. .
Poor Farmer McPhee, tired and irritable after a hard day’s
work can’t enjoy the beauty of the moon “curved like a peeling from a silver
apple.” His farm animals do appreciate it; they sing and dance in the
moonlight. (Only David Elliot could draw a sheep doing handstands.)
Unimpressed
and desperately sleepy McPhee tries to lock the animals in the barn but then
something quite magical happens. Fold-out pages show him being captured by the
silver light of the moon, drawn out to dance and frisk with his animals. (Only
David Elliot could show a farmer in nightshirt and gumboots playing leapfrog
with sheep.) Clever arrangements of folds and windows conceal secrets and add
to the fun.
The last page, with its closing doors concealing sleeping dancers,
carries a message for all bedtime readers.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in Your Weekend magazine on 6th June 2015.
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