Now these are just my personal feelings and considerations, and I am definitely no zoologist. While I do not see much wrong with the father imitating the owl's calls to attract it, I tend to think that using a flashlight on the owl is perhaps potentially harmful, as I believe this could temporarily blind it (and I definitely did not enjoy that part of Owl Moon quite as much). Both Jane Yolen's narrative and John Schoenherr's luminous 'winter wonderland' illustrations perfectly, descriptively and caressingly capture the quiet, the peacefulness, the mystery of the winter woods at night, a luminous marriage of text and image (and I can certainly and appreciatively understand how and why Owl Moon won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1988). Reading this lovely little gem of a picture book (and looking at the snowy and peaceful illustrations) gives a similar sensation, cold, yet warm all the same, silent, mysterious, where every sound (and even the very silence) is music and the atmosphere pure delight. Overall, “Owl Moon” is definitely a book worth reading during the winter holidays and children who love reading about owls will definitely get a kick out this book! Now for my recommendation, I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.Īs a teenager (after we had moved to an acreage outside of Calgary, Alberta), I used to go out by myself on cold and clear winter nights with binoculars to observe the moon and stars and listen for coyotes. “Our feet crunched over the crisp snow and little gray footprints followed us.”Īnd the image shows the young girl and her father leaving footprints in the snow as they walk through the forest. Another aspect that I loved about this book was the perfect combination of Jane Yolen’s writing with John Schoenherr’s illustrations as they both tell the story effectively, such as for example, in this passage: The images I really loved were of the images of the snow covering the grounds and the trees as it made the forest look like one big white world and I also loved how realistic looking the trees were as they twisted and turned on every image. John Schoenherr’s illustrations are simply beautiful and mesmerizing as they detailed the true wonder of the forest during wintertime. Jane Yolen has effectively detailed the young girl’s experience with exploring the forest with her father to see the owl and I also loved the way that Jane Yolen made this story be told from the young girl’s perspective as she sees the winter world as a magical experience for her and therefore.

This book was just simply amazing! The true highlight of this book was Jane Yolen’s beautiful writing as her writing adds a dreamlike and poetic feel to the story. So, the girl and her father continued into the forest until… When the girl and her father were a good ways into the woods, the father starts making hooting noises like an owl, but no owl came.

One late winter night, a girl and her father decided to go out to see an owl by walking through the frosty woods together and the girl marveled at everything around her when they went through the forest.

“Owl Moon” will easily be treasured by many children for years to come! I have actually read this book when I was a child, but now I have finally got the chance to re-read this book again! “Owl Moon” is a Caldecott Medal award winning book by Jane Yolen along with illustrations by John Schoenherr and it is about how a young girl goes out with her father to see an owl and experiences the magic of looking at owls all in one night.

Good night owl read aloud