*Said The Little Raccoon to the Moon by Miriam Morton (1974) is a one-of-a-kind find for me. It’s old, worn appearance, dark palette, and woodcut cover image made it easy to pass over. But it peaked my curiosity. Not many picture books have illustrations from woodcuts. And this book’s copyright is owned by the Xerox Corporation. It’s a Level 5, Unit 4 book from 360 Magic Circle Books Reading by Ginn and Company. I’ve listened to hundreds of webinars about reading programs over the last three decades. My, how reading instruction has changed, and backtracked, and manifested in rubrics and pedagogy by university professors and publishing companies! Here is an example from the 1970s. The text is repetitive, the story sequence of actions by a young, lonely raccoon. This little critter asks the omnipresent moon to play. “The moon did not say no.” I admire Jon Provest’s woodcuts. I wonder if a contemporary young reader would give this book a second look given the brightly colored, digital art they often see today.
