Owl Moon

Yolen, J. (1988). Owl moon. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

First, I will explain how I chose this book.  I decided that for some of my book selections in this course I would talk with my colleagues to see what some of their favorite books to use in their classrooms are.  I am a special education teacher so I went to one of the teachers I collaborate with who has been teaching kindergarten for 12 years and asked her for a few award winning picture books that happen to be some of her favorites but I told her not to tell me anything about them, I wanted to have my own feelings about the books.  She gave me a stack of some books she really enjoys, one of which was the picture book, Owl Moon, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by John Schoenherr.  By the condition of the book I could tell it had been “loved” and gotten plenty of use over the years.  The book had the big gold Caldecott Medal on the front cover which it received in 1988.

The book is written in first person point of view.  The main character is the narrator, a young child, perhaps a young boy who goes on his first owling adventure with his father, Pa.  The boy and his father venture into the woods one late snowy night looking for owls.  The plot of the story follows chronological order where the boy takes the audience through his adventure with step by step details.  He clearly has been looking forward to this owling adventure and knows what to expect.  The boy talks about what he sees, hears, feels, and what he is thinking along his adventure.  He sees the moonlight, shadows, and trees.  He hears a train whistle, dogs barking, silence of the night, and owl calls.  He feels cold, warmth, happiness.  He mentions how the moonlight makes different things appear, like moonlight on his father’s face, moonlight in the clearing lighting up the snow, and the moonlight on the owl. During their journey his father makes owl calls in hopes of hearing one call back.  After a few attempts, they finally hear an owl, and then see the owl.  After they see the owl their mission is accomplished and they return home.  On the last page, the author’s words seem to tell the audience that the boy is proud and happy to have gone on his journey with his father.

I enjoyed reading this book, it gave me warm and fuzzy feelings! I spent some time reminiscing events in my life, particularly special moments I spent with my parents.  I had two younger brothers and when I was able to spend time with just one of my parents for some quality time I was in pure happiness.  I looked up to my mom and wanted to be just like her.  I remember always wanting to help her.  I even called her up to chat about some of my favorite memories we shared, like our annual gardening weekend every spring.

The illustrations are beautiful. Schoenherr painted full page illustrations of the snowy winter night on each page.  You see the boy and his father from different points of view in the woods on the owling journey.  The paintings are soft and peaceful, adding to the words in the text which also provided a calming effect for me.  From the illustrations I felt warm and happy, seeing the father and child together reminded me of moments in my childhood when I shared memorable moments with my parents.

This book could be used to make students recall a time in their life that was meaningful to them.  I would consider sharing this story with my students prior to personal writing activities giving examples of first person and the details and feelings provided by the narrator.  Some questions I would ask my students would be, “Think of an event in your life that is meaningful to you.”, “Why was this event meaningful to you? How did it make you feel?”, “Who was involved, where did the event take place?”

I would recommend this book to teachers in primary grades.  My first graders begin writing personal narratives next week.  I plan to share this book with them.