The Moon Might Be Milk

by Lisa Shulman, Will Hillenbrand (Illustrations)

Rosie What is the moon made of? Cat thinks the moon is a saucer of fresh milk, spilled from the sky into puddles on the ground. Dog thinks it’s a pat of sweet, creamy butter. Butterfly thinks it’s made of sticky and sparkling and oh, so sweet. But Gran knows best. Using milk, butter, sugar, and other ingredients, she shows Rosie how to bake moonshaped cookies and captures a magical piece of the moon in her very own kitchen. This classic-in-the-making from Gran’s hearth is sure to inspire family baking and sharing. Sugar cookie recipe included.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Food, Childrens, 1st Grade, Animals, Cooking

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Lillian Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cookie recipe in the back! 😋

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children might enjoy the repetitive nature of the story, as a little girl asks each of her animals in turn what they think the moon might be made of and each one names a different sort of food (sugar, milk, butter, eggs). But what does the girl think the moon is? Eventually, all the "ingredients" combine to give her an answer. It's a cute idea, but just got a little long and lost my interest a bit by the end. (Also, it's purely imagination so anyone looking for a factual book about the moon should look elsewhere.)

[Avonlea Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might pair well with “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” for an afternoon tea with sugar cookies - perhaps cut into the various phases of the moon? We took this book out from the library with “Little Rabbit Waits for the Moon,” which also pairs nicely for a moon-themed reading. We loved the poetic, imaginative nature of this book - it could be a good conversation starter for a kid’s ideas about the moon, and follow with a more educational activity like cutting out the shapes of the moon’s phases with cookies or felt, and other hands-on activities that help kids learn about what the moon is really made of.

[Miss Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosie want to know what the moon is made of so she asks her animal friends. Cat thinks is is a saucer of milk. Hen says it's an egg. Butterfly believes is is made of sugar. Dog tells her it is a pat of butter and mouse says is is flour. Then Gran uses all these ingredients to make moon shaped cookies.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An elementary level picture book about the animals in a child's world guessing what the moon might be made of and all guessing food. What could be true? Twist ending.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Various creatures share with a girl what they believe the moon to be made of, but her grandmother puts it all together.

Clever, great for a home baking session with kids.

[Kristiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this one. Such a fun story. It does get a tad repetitive but not enough to bother me.

[BlackhamBooks]

The LFL needed a restock and I didn't have time to do my read /rate/review ... this was a "read and listen" with included audio. Added July 8 and it was snagged shortly after.

[Relyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our summer school theme is NASA and space this year. So, I am teaching fiction and non-fiction about the moon, stars, and aliens. We have lots and lots of cool plans. For example, we are designing our own life-sized aliens, having spaceship races (decorated Frisbee), writing poems about what the moon is really made of: green cheese, milk, white chocolate, a pearl... Their ideas are vast and fun. As a part of summer school, we are reading tons and tons of moon, star, and alien related books. I'll review some of them here.

This book is WONDERFUL!! I want to remember to use it next year for a lesson on point of view. Rosie and her cat go all over the farmyard asking animals what the moon is made of. Depending on what type of animal it is, we get a different answer. This was a great lead in to my The Moon Is NOT Made of Green Cheese activity. I wish we could have cooked and made the sugar cookie moons. This was a creative, delightful, surprising book. I wish it were more widely-known. It's really wonderful.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My five-year-old son picked this book out from the library last week. I asked him if the moon was milk. He said, "That's silly. It's chocolate."

This book is almost really good, but not quite. I have no problem with the repetition -- early readers and listening readers like repetition -- my problem was all the extraneous text before the repetition. The punch of the repetition was greatly diminished by being lost in unnecessary text. I did like that the moon could have been any of items (or ingredients) listed with a delicious-sounding end result. Tighter editing could have improved this story vastly.

The illustrations were good, although not phenomenal, but they certainly worked very well the story.


Actual rating: 3.5, but I round up.

[Gianina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had all the elements for success but I just was meh about the way it was written. It made my tongue tired and felt repetitive. That said we love to read books about grandma around our house. I thought my daughter would find it more amusing the idea that the moon was made up of all the ingredients of a sugar cookie but it fell more flat. It was fun to have this included in a space week so we could talk about fiction and non fiction although that delineation might be more understood with an older child.

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those somewhat repetitive books that kids just love but adults quickly tire of. Rosie asks her cat what the moon is made of which launches a journey with them asking a variety of animals what they think the moon is made of. It culminates in Gran's kitchen where Gran combines all the things the animals say the moon is (milk, eggs, butter, flour - you can see where this is going...) and makes cookies.

Okay illustrations. Nothing special.

[Dewey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of this story...but I feel like it's more wordy than necessary. The concept of the moon being made of all the ingredients of a cookie is really cute, but I don't know how well this would hold the attention of a large group of kids, with how long it is. I'm toying with the idea of converting the story into a flannel board story, but I don't know that I'll ever read the full story in a storytime.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosie asks the cat, the hen, the butterfly, the dog, the mouse, and finally Gran what the moon is made of. All give different answers, yet all are right. Gran puts all the 'moon ingredients' together and comes up with a big surprise!

Used for "Got Milk?, Got Water?, Got Juice?" storytime-April, 2010.

[Stephanie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was average. It was clever, yet simple. I enjoyed at the end how all of the ingredients the different animals thought the moon was came together to make moon cookies. I also liked how the author included her grandma's recipe for sugar cookie moons.

[LibraryLaur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite moon book.

[Coral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but there's definitely some better moon books out there.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read at "On the Road" story time on 7/26/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter loved this story and wanted to read again and again about Rosie.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always a fan of Hillenbrand's illustrations and this book feels delightfully like a folktale. Great to share as a lapsit with preschoolers. Includes a recipe.

[Tammy]

Rosie wonders what the moon is made of. Cat thinks it's a saucer of milk, Dog thinks it's butter, Hen thinks it's an egg, Mouse thinks it's made of flour. When Rosie asks Gran, she gets a delicious answer that combines all their answers: a warm, round sugar cookie! Recipe at the end of the book.