Summer Moonlight Concert

PreS-Gr 3–Dreamy, dusky scenes of flooded fields give way to a gathering in an apartment building around a sparsely furnished room where Xiaomi lives with her mother and father. They have just eaten dinner when the power goes out. Xiaomi worries about her homework; her mother frets about dirty dishes; her father looks outside where the moonlight shines down on the yard and proposes an outdoor concert. As they begin to play, neighbors join in with instruments or with dancing, embracing the night. When the power is restored, the concert breaks up. Han’s wispy watercolor illustrations capture the soft beauty of the moonlit night and the atmosphere in which crying babies can be soothed by a sudden and curious turn of events. The setting is the Chinese countryside, an amalgam of apartment buildings and smaller residences, with the locals enjoying a summer night.