The Man in the Moon by William Joyce

Once upon a time, there was a young boy, MiM, who flew around in a beautiful spherical space ship with his parents. He lived a charmed life, playing with his caretaker Nightlight and learning about the stars. But evil chased MiM, Pitch King of Nightmares had heard that MiM had never had a nightmare and he swore that he would destroy everything that MiM loved so that MiM would become Prince of Nightmares.

MiM overcame his losses, and grew up to care for the children of Earth. MiM wanted to bring joy to the children, and fight Pitch's influence, so he gathered allies on earth to help him: a toymaker, a rabbit who loved candied eggs, a fairy that left prizes under pillows, a gentle storyteller, and a little sleepy man who knew all about dreams. Together they vow to watch over the guard the hopes and dreams of children, they are the first Guardians of Childhood.

You might remember that we saw William Joyce speak at the ALA conference. He talked quite a bit about the development of this book, it is the first book he's written in about fifteen years, and spoke in-depth about how he had cultivated the mythology of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and others, for his children and how it made this book quite personal. Added to this was the fact that Mr. Joyce was developing the premise for this book during illness of his daughter and her subsequent death, gives this book an added depth and beauty. Though let's be honest if you didn't know this heartbreaking back story, you would still find the book visually stunning. It is beautiful. Detailed, saturated colors, and just lovely.

There are at least two more books in the series coming out in the next year covering Nicholas St. North and E. Aster Bunny. And as this book did a lot of exposition I'm excited to see more storytelling. Get this book, and every subsequent book. Don't ask questions, just go forth and purchase.

The Man in the Moon comes out Sept. 6.