Product Description

A richly-textured tale about family and storytelling.

Abel Grable’s work takes him into remote jungles with only the moon to guide the way. His children love to hear about his moonlit adventures and when he’s back home, he decides to write them down. After he’s gone away again, the children use his writing table and transform it into a moon machine to create their own imaginary exploits.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #630292 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-01
• Released on: 2002-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Hughes (the Alfie books) once again uses small, everyday moments to craft a powerful story. To find work, Abel Grable must journey far and wide, leaving his wife and three boisterous boys. But when each job is over, he returns to his family and regales everyone with the fantastic adventures he's had. After one such trip, Abel decides to record some of his stories, moving an old table out into the garden to find some quiet in which to write. When Abel leaves again, his boys take comfort in both the stories he's left behind and those they create themselves, using their imaginations to convert his writing table into a campsite, a boat and then a machine for flying to the moon. Hughes's direct, unadorned prose gives both substance and depth to this wisp of a story line, as do her trademark watercolor illustrations, both beautiful and comforting in their sturdy, homey detail. The loneliness and longing created by a parent's absence are never explicitly mentioned; they quietly inform text and art as well as the story's interplay between fantasy and reality. Keeping sentimentality at bay, Hughes's restraint gives the characters' emotions unusual resonance. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2 After Abel Grable returns from working out of the country, he tells his wife and sons all about his adventures. He describes camping out in jungles and taking supplies by riverboat to people in places with no electricity, with only the moon to guide the way. Because the boys love hearing these stories so much, Abel decides to record them. Finding it too noisy to work inside, he takes a table out in the yard, and writes for many hours. Then he goes off again. Using the table at which he wrote, Noah and Adam re-create their father's adventures or pretend that the table is a machine that can take them to the moon. That night, Adam realizes that the same moon is shining on him and on Abel, and on all people who love one another but can't be together. And, he imagines all the wonderful stories he will have to tell his father about his adventures. Hughes's deceptively plain writing style packs a subtle emotional wallop. Youngsters will appreciate the loving family, and enjoy the children's imaginative play. Hughes's humorous watercolor illustrations are at their best here. They effectively depict the luminous moonlight and the characters' changing feelings. They also make the little ordinary family treasures and clutter an important part of the narrative. The text and art fit beautifully together to create a moving story that can be appreciated on many levels. Anne Parker, Milton Public Library, MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“Shirley Hughes’ longer texts are expressively illustrated and full of rich imagery and language that will encourage more
sophisticated listeners and beginner readers.” -- Daily Telegraph

Customer Reviews

CROCODILES & MOON MACHINES ---- FATHER & SON FANTASIES
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If your name was Abel Grable and your wife's name was Mabel you too would have to get away every now and then.

"Abel's Moon" is set sometime in the 1950's going by the clothes the characters wear. Abel has to leave his family and travel to find work. They are not a prosperous family, the front gate squeaks and the garden is overgrown. There is no TV or video games in this house. Instead they sit around the fire and tell stories. Somehow they look happy!

There are 3 children Adam, Noah and baby Ben, and of course Skipper the dog. The boys know how to entertain themselves, such as playing at being wild animals. Mabel and Ben love dancing to the music on the radio. When Abel is back home he tries to write up the stories of his travels but the noise from the family is too much. He has to go out into the garden to get some peace and quiet in order to work.

Abel's stories about his adventures are full of tales about monkey's swinging through trees, crocodiles in muddy swamps and travelling on riverboats to remote places.

Once again it was time for Abel to set out to find work. The boys missed their Dad very much.

The boys turn the old writing table that Dad had used out in the garden into a camp. They are sure they can hear monkeys in the trees. They then turn the table upside down to make a pretend boat. They paddled it through muddy crocodile infested swamps with only the moon to guide them.

Adam one day decided that the writing table could be turned into a moon machine with the addition of few planks of wood to make some propellers. Under the light of the full moon Adam looked out at the moon machine in his garden.

Adam had a remarkable and profound thought. " He knew that the moon was shining down on him, and Abel too. It shone down on all the people who loved each other and couldn't always be together, beaming down on each and every one, no matter how far away they were".

With his strong sense of imagination Adam planned that one night soon, he and Noah (and Skipper if he behaved himself) would take off in the moon machine, and drop in on Dad, wherever he was.

Soon Abel would be back home with his family. The boys would then tell Abel all about THEIR adventures.

You get the message that Abel's sons have just as strong sense of imagination as their father does. You guess his crocodile stories may be just as real as Adam's trips in his moon machine.

"Abel's Moon" is a delightful story. The illustrations capture the era and the atmosphere perfectly.

Abel's Moon
Adam and Noah miss their dad, Abel, when he travels on business. He writes down his travel stories for the family to read while he is away on his next trip. Adam feels connected to his dad when he sees the moon shine because it also shines on his father. Adam and Noah make a moon machine in the back yard and pretend they will fly to their dad and visit him. They plan to share their adventures with Dad on his return. The illustrations depict loving family scenes.

Beautiful story and illustrations
This is a wonderful story about a man who returns home to his family after traveling, guided by the moon. The story is creative, and touching, as the children feel closer to their father when they can look up and see the moon. The educational superb too, since it is a good introduction to what the moon is and why it looks the way it does in the sky.