the guardians of childhood and the man in the moon

Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness. Pitch and Nighlight's fates will be the subject of subsequent episodes, but this first adventure in the Guardians of Childhood series offers a visual feast and a complete mythology of the Man in the Moon.' -Jennifer M. When MiM comes up with a solution to children's nighttime fears, he recruits the Moon's minions and his team of earthling Guardians (Santa, the Tooth Fairy, etc.). Santa learns of children's wishes through letters their hopes and dreams travel to MiM by helium balloons. Santa rides in his sleigh MiM flies on his moth. Joyce's fans will relish the parallels with his earlier tour de force about a mythic man in a magical land, Santa Calls.

Their constellation offers MiM comfort, and the moon creatures rally around to educate and protect the baby. As Nightlight plunges his diamond dagger into Pitch's heart, an explosion results, and when MiM later reaches the Moon's surface, he sees the image of his parents etched in the stars. Nightlight whisks MiM away to safety, just before Pitch captures the child's parents. One day, Pitch, the King of Nightmares, with jet-black hair in up-floating coils as menacing as Medusa's snakes, hunts down this legendary child who has never had a bad dream. Each night, the vessel transforms into the Moon. As a baby, MiM, as he is called, travels the skies in a golden-sailed Moon Clipper with his mother, father and Nightlight, a kind of fairy godfather. Only a sure and meticulous hand could conjure up such luscious lunar moths and battling constellations.'-Kirkus Reviews * 'William Joyce invents a breathtaking landscape for his history of the original guardian of childhood: the Man in the Moon. With lots of detail in its gold-flecked blues, the lavish illustration will set 6-year-old minds ticking, and though the King of Nightmares makes an appearance, this is a story primarily about sweet.'-The New York Times Book Review 'Joyce's prowess as an illustrator is undeniable, and this may well be his most ambitious, marvelous-looking title to date. And what a brilliant concept! The hero, MiM, or the Man in the Moon, is just the first beloved figure of childhood lore to get his own tale-the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost are to follow. The New Yorker (12/5/12) 'With the aura of an established classic, the first volume in Joyce's long-anticipated series, 'The Guardians of Childhood,' is worth the wait.

Joyce's shimmering images are at once adorable and otherworldly: a lunar moth bears the sleeping baby hero through space at dinnertime, starfish swarm the sky. 'Resplendent, almost glowing.'-The Wall Street Journal This gorgeously strange picture book, the first in a projected series, traces the origins of the Man in the Moon, who, after losing his parents in a battle with the King of Nightmares, is raised by a retinue of giant glowworms and mice in tasseled sailor caps.

The guardians of childhood and the man in the moon