ALA Booklist (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2003)

Impressionistic oil paintings evoke the feel of a crisp fall night in this ode to the harvest moon. Descriptive text introduces the huge, orange moon as it rises above the cornfields, and describes its effect on a little girl woken from sleep, a night watchman as he gets ready to go to work, and on nature itself. Moonflowers bloom, though only night creatures will see them. Even though night is the focus here, the pace is anything but somnolent; readers will be awakened to a new world of activity that begins only when the moon rises. The overall effect is peaceful rather than frenetic, however; the dark beauty of the illustrations captures the magic of nighttime: a deep blue sky contrasting with the bright moon and stars; the little girl's cat pouncing on something invisible nearby; the harbor's dark water blending with the sky. Pair this with Julian Scheer's By the Light of the Captured Moon (2000) for before-bed reads that focus on nighttime instead of bedtime for a change.

Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

After Bert's pigs run away (The Great Pig Escape), the farmer receives a postcard suggesting that the porkers have headed south. Vacationing in Florida with his wife, Bert intends to bring home the bacon but remains humorously oblivious to the porcine cabdrivers, sunbathers, and rock musicians hiding in plain sight in the loosely composed ink drawings, splashed with bright watercolors.

Kirkus Reviews

As atmospheric as its companion, Twilight Comes Twice , this tone poem pairs poetically intense writing with luminescent oils featuring widely spaced houses, open lawns, and clumps of autumnal trees, all lit by a huge full moon. Fletcher tracks that moon's nocturnal path in language rich in metaphor: "With silent slippers / it climbs the night stairs," "staining earth and sky with a ghostly glow," lighting up a child's bedroom, the wings of a small plane, moonflowers, and, ranging further afield, harbor waves and the shells of turtle hatchlings on a beach. Using creamy brushwork and subtly muted colors, Kiesler depicts each landscape, each night creature from Luna moths to a sleepless child and her cat, as well as the great moon sweeping across star-flecked skies, from varied but never vertiginous angles. Closing with moonset, as dawn illuminates the world with a different kind of light, this makes peaceful reading either in season, or on any moonlit night. (Picture book. 6-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Like their <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Twilight Comes Twice, this quiet meditation on the beauty of the harvest moon is a visual and linguistic pleasure. The book begins with the moon's rising, "lifting free of the treetops" and shining through a girl's bedroom window, then moves outward to explore the ways in which the moon's light affects other people and animals. Kiesler's oil paintings gleam with soft light as the girl and her cat watch luna moths and admire the fall foliage of the birch trees "double-dipped in moonlight." Text and art together create a sense of wonder at the beauty of open milkweed pods, "like tiny moonlings/ floating/ up to their mother" or a spider web etched in moonlight. Beginning with the close-up of the girl and her cat, poet and artist widen the perspective to incorporate other nighttime activity—a plane overhead, a night watchman, various animals and eventually, the pull of the moon on the earth's waters as it "grab[s] whole oceans with its arms." Fletcher's lyrical, child-friendly images will linger in readers' minds. With a gentle nod to Margaret Wise Brown, the child's morning is the moon's setting ("a sleepy head winking/ falling/ slow motion/ onto its pillow"), and the book ends appropriately with the girl bidding, "Good night, harvest moon." Ages 4-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

School Library Journal (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2003)

PreS-Gr 4 In this lyrical offering, the harvest moon rises on a quiet neighborhood and bathes the silent streets in brilliant lunar light. It illuminates corn and wheat fields, inspires luna moths to perform ballet in the crisp air, and casts a silver shadow on the red and orange autumn trees. A young girl and her cat play hide-and-seek by its light, a pilot flies her plane in near-daytime brightness, and a night watchman wonders if he'll need his flashlight. As morning nears, the moon sets in daylight and the child and her cat bid it goodnight. Fletcher's poetic prose makes use of gentle tempo and internal rhyme. Imaginative metaphors add to the text; as the moon sets, it sprinkles "silver coins like a careless millionaire." Careful use of second-person narrative draws readers into the text. Kiesler's luminous oil paintings portray the luscious moon glow, and a refrained use of brush stroke captures the mystery of nighttime when the familiar world becomes exotic, dazzling, and alive with nocturnal life. Warm hues evoke homey, autumn scenes. Hello, Harvest Moon helps usher in the season and encourages readers to connect with people throughout the ages who have marveled at the glorious sight. Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI