The Coziest Place on the Moon

A creature in search of “happy-alone” solitude—“that feeling which feels like hearing your own voice singing you back to yourself”—drives a perceptive, science-anchored story from Popova (The Snail with the Right Heart) and Jacoby (Everything Is Fine!). One midsummer day, a fuzzy blue hedgehog-like creature, Re, awakens “feeling like the loneliest creature on Earth” and travels via light beam to find “the coziest place on the moon, a perfect nook pitted deep into the Sea of Tranquility.” Upon reaching the location—where “it is always the temperature of a spring afternoon”—Re is gratified to find a cave in which to feel happy-alone. Soon, a kindred spirit, fuzzy yellow Mi, is revealed, and the two agree to each separately occupy the cave’s converging tunnels—occasionally calling to one another “across their two parallel tranquilities” and periodically harmonizing together. Alongside sometimes abstract text, inky, immersive scenes of the cuddly subjects have a velvety texture and an occasionally biolumi-nescent-esque glow. The creators’ meditative, capacious portrayal of solitude reassures that there are many ways to be alone. An author’s note concludes. Ages 5–8. (Nov.)