Kitten's First Full Moon

Kitten's First Full Moon is a picture book illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes. Henkes tells the story of a little kitten who spots the full moon in the sky for the first time. Since the kitten has never seen the moon before, she believes it to be a bowl of milk waiting just for her. The kitten stretches, climbs, reaches and chases the moon but can never reach it. Sad and tired that she couldn't reach the full moon, the kitten returns home to find a nice bowl of milk waiting for her on the front steps. The little kitten had quite a night! I loved this story and thought it was a cute way to portray many situations in life we all encounter: seeing new things for the first time and being unsure of what they are, or chasing after something that you can never truly grasp. This book could be used to teach cause and effect in not only an action causing a reaction, but how that can apply to people's feelings and moods too. For being aimed at younger children, I think this book does a great job with showing kids that sometimes in life you may not get things you want no matter how hard you want them, but you may find that sometimes life can surprise you in little unexpected ways.

Henkins, K. (2004). Kitten's first full moon. New York: Harper Collins.