What is the point of reading? For fun? To learn? Or to pass the time? Maybe all those layers and more. And Fae and the Moon has a few layers too. Granted, it might not be a seven-layer cake, but it has two or three. Franco Aureliani, Catherine Satrun and Sarah Starun came together to make a cute story about the idea of female empowerment, friendship, family and self understanding. The illustrations are simple, but cute and even the scary parts are lovely in the simplistic nature of the color and minimal details. There are a few bumps for me, but overall, a delightful read. There are vibes of Alice in Wonderland, Nutcracker, Asian and European folklore.
And that is the book review portion of our review. I was not OMG Best book ever! But I felt that if there is a book two, I want in on it. I liked the illustrations. I thought that they were wonderfully colorful, and the characters were not pushy or too much. Even the Rat King, as the bad guy, was sweet. There is a small section near the end that for the under 10 crowd might be a bit “much” but nothing they probably haven’t seen in cartoons or movies. I enjoyed the blue rose images and the final few pages had a few little gems, too.
The idea is we follow Fae as she tries to find out how her mother disappeared. And in the process of trying to bring her back, Fae takes the moon from the sky and then, well, you can image the chaos that ensues. We get dragons, and rabbits and Rat Kings, and all sorts of goodies and baddies! The adventures of Fae are “exciting” and action-based but nothing too “much.” Things are familiar for adult readers and the kid reader will get a kick out of it. Will it be a classic? Probably not, but it will be a book your child will want to read again.