Reviewed by Gail McDonald
Susannah Crispe is a Canberra based children’s book author and illustrator with a background in zoology.
Susannah has previously partnered in writing and illustrating two children’s books but this one Under the Moonlight is written and illustrated by Susannah alone.
The book is a delightful tale of Moose who is an enormous, brave and solitary animal whose sleep is shattered by a fright in the night. The story follows moose as he investigates the source of the noise that disturbed his sleep.
The illustrations in the book are very soft and gentle with muted tones which makes it very pleasing for both the reader and the child. While the book is described as a bedtime story – “a gentle story about facing your night-time fears for little readers everywhere”, I can see it as so much more.
It is suitable for young toddlers, as well as kindergarten and preschool age children. Discussion provoked through the reading of the text, on the rhyming words and the challenging new words such as “foraged, snuffled, eerie and shrill and his nerves feeling frayed” will open a whole lot of questioning and information sharing for the child.
Each page offers an opportunity for learning through discussion of the various things children can identify on each page such as the owl hidden in the tree or the brightly coloured mushrooms on the ground.
This is such an enjoyable children’s book with a story line suitable for various ages. The images on the cover and within the book invite the reader and the child into the story about Moose.
Under the Moonlight
by Susannah Crisp
[2022]
Hachette
ISBN 978 073442 115 9
$24.99; 32pp