A dreamy and creative young child, one whose attention is always wandering, whose ideas take shape in response to events occurring around him, but then whisk him off to far places, Martin struggles to stay attentive on his first day of school. Caught by his teacher in the act of daydreaming, he takes a chance, and shares with the class: he had been thinking of poems, and of kisses - which his poet mother likens to poems - and his dead cat Henry. Rather than reprimand or ridicule him, Ms. Fisher teaches the class how to represent kisses - with an 'X' - and the story ends on a positive note...

Originally published in French as Xavier-la-lune, this lovely book paints a picture, with both text and words, of a creative young child and his unique way of looking at the world. I appreciated the fact that author Martine Audet depicts Martin's daydreams as natural and constructive, but also perhaps not quite the right activity for school time. There's a delicate balance to be struck, in affirming and supporting a child's creativity and individuality, whilst not permitting self-indulgent or disrespectful classroom conduct, and Ms. Fisher (and through her, Audet) gets it just right. She takes Martin's daydream, and turns it into an activity involving the entire class, one that keeps the dreamy young boy involved and anchored in the 'real' world. I found this approach infinitely preferable to the one outlined in the popular Iggy Peck, Architect, in which the teacher is depicted as stodgy and repressive, for expecting the young child genius star to pay attention to her lesson. Leaving that aside, the text here was quite lyrical, which one would expect, given the fact that Martine Audet is a poet. I loved the description of poetry by Martin's mother (also a poet), in which she maintained that "poems help you put things into words that are painful or wonderful or that you just don't understand." Indeed. The accompanying artwork by Luc Melanson is humorous and colorful, ably capturing the dream vistas that open up before its eponymous main character.

In sum: Martin on the Moon is a beautifully written and illustrated tale, one which affirms a child's creative inner life, while tying it back to the more mundane world of the classroom. Recommended to any parent or teacher with a young dreamer on their hands, or to anyone searching for children's stories about creativity, poetry, and maintaining that balance between individual and community life. ( )

Lyrical story. First published in French. ( )