Moon Pops

Product Information

Author-illustrator Heena Baek won the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and this is the first of her books to be published in English.

Perfect for a bedtime story on a hot summer night, this entertaining tale offers much to be discovered on multiple readings; a strong title to share widely at story hours. The book starts with a reminder that in Korean folklore they say the image in the moon looks like a rabbit with a mortar and pestle.

Translated from Korean with exceptional, detailed 3D collage illustrations, this is a reimagining of the East Asian tale of the rabbit in the moon.

And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. One classroom used Moon Pops to teach the structure of an LE book project, work that will begin soon. On a very hot summer evening, when nothing seems to work to keep a group of neighbors cool, the moon starts melting. Vanessa, an LE teacher, is reading The Wisdom Wheel by Alberto Villolda and re-reading Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain. I would strongly recommend having a good supply of yummy frozen treats to eat after you finish reading the story.For the younger children, they could have activities with how the characters feel and what would make them feel that way. But when 2 rabbits arrive because they lost their home, Granny needs to figure out how to help them. This would make a great classroom read for young elementary school children learning about folklore from around the world. The collage illustrations are stunning and the story is a beautiful look into the tales of Korean culture. And this summer, I read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, which might be one of the best books I’ve read in a long time!

A strange and delightful tale made for lingering over--and perfect for reading with your own moon pop . The summer heat is oppressive—“too hot to do anything”—and the sense of claustrophobia and sweat is palpable. A retelling of the Korean folktale, "The Legend of Moon Rabbit," with an urban setting and with a modern twist. Based on the Korean fable of the moon rabbit, the tale takes place in a multistory apartment building at night.The text is simple and clear, but the real shining star here are the illustrations, which are diorama-like photographs.

I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. It is popping up on all the best of 2022 lists so I checked it out, and it definitely deserves the recognition.

This (according to publisher description) is the first picture book for Heena Baek to be published in English (translated by Jieun Kiaer). These aliens just show up after a night of the apartment complex having a moon pop (the melted moon frozen into popsicles) party. I liked the story well enough, though the author’s note at the beginning feels necessary for the story to make some sense when it kind of derails with some rabbits midway through… that part felt like a non sequitur to me. Granny’s solution for getting the rabbits back to their home on the moon also involves shimmering lights and wondrous, sparkling orbs that shine against the cloudy, starless night sky. The art is a mix of photo backgrounds and cut out drawings of anthropomorphic wolf-like creatures in the foreground.