What do you think?
Rate this book
The Moon Jumpers
A lyrical story of night-time, in which four small children and a black cat find themselves enchanted with the loveliness of the hot summer night and the magic of the moon. The illustrator won the American Library Association's Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are, in 1964.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
About the author
Maurice Sendak
401 books2,396 followersMaurice Sendak was a visionary American illustrator and writer best known for transforming the landscape of children's literature through his emotionally resonant stories and distinctive artistic style. He gained international acclaim with Where the Wild Things Are, a groundbreaking picture book that captured the emotional intensity of childhood through its honest portrayal of anger, imagination, and longing. Widely recognized for his ability to blend the whimsical with the profound, Sendak created works that resonated with both children and adults, challenging conventional notions of what children's books could be.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Sendak was a sickly child who spent much of his early life indoors, nurturing a love for books, drawing, and storytelling. The son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, he was deeply affected by the losses of the Holocaust, which shaped the darker emotional undercurrents in his work. His art was influenced by a range of sources, from comic strips and Mickey Mouse to Mozart, Blake, and German Romanticism. Though he began his career illustrating other writers’ books, he soon transitioned to authoring his own, beginning with Kenny’s Window and then The Sign on Rosie’s Door.
It was Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963, that solidified Sendak’s reputation as a master of children’s literature. The book, which won the Caldecott Medal, was initially controversial due to its depiction of unruly behavior and ambiguous emotional tone. However, it was later recognized as a revolutionary work that respected children’s inner lives and psychological complexity. This theme continued in his later works, including In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There, which formed a loose trilogy exploring the emotional and imaginative experiences of childhood. These books, celebrated for their dreamlike narratives and lush illustrations, often tackled fears, fantasies, and the challenges of growing up.
Throughout his career, Sendak illustrated more than a hundred books, working with authors such as Ruth Krauss and Else Holmelund Minarik. His visual style—characterized by its intricate detail, dynamic line work, and expressive characters—evolved over the decades, but always retained an unmistakable emotional intensity. He also designed sets and costumes for operas and ballets, bringing his imaginative worlds to the stage. Notably, he created productions for works by Mozart and Prokofiev, combining his love of classical music with theatrical design.
Sendak was known for his sharp wit, fierce independence, and deep empathy for children. He openly criticized the sanitized and moralistic tone of much of children's publishing, insisting instead that young readers deserved stories that acknowledged their full emotional range, including fear, grief, anger, and wonder. He was also an openly gay man in a long-term relationship, though he only spoke publicly about his sexuality later in life.
Later in his career, Sendak continued to produce new work, collaborate with artists and institutions, and advocate for intellectual freedom. His final books, including Bumble-Ardy and My Brother’s Book, reflected both a return to his childhood memories and a meditation on aging, love, and mortality. Though his stories often ventured into the dark or surreal, they remained rooted in a deep respect for the emotional reality of children and a belief in the power of imagination to confront life's challenges.
Maurice Sendak’s legacy endures in the countless writers and illustrators he inspired, the cultural impact of his stories, and the enduring affection readers of all ages hold for his wild things, mischievous children, and tender monsters. Through his work, he redefined what children’s literature could be: rich, honest, haunting, and, above all, deeply human.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Sendak was a sickly child who spent much of his early life indoors, nurturing a love for books, drawing, and storytelling. The son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, he was deeply affected by the losses of the Holocaust, which shaped the darker emotional undercurrents in his work. His art was influenced by a range of sources, from comic strips and Mickey Mouse to Mozart, Blake, and German Romanticism. Though he began his career illustrating other writers’ books, he soon transitioned to authoring his own, beginning with Kenny’s Window and then The Sign on Rosie’s Door.
It was Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963, that solidified Sendak’s reputation as a master of children’s literature. The book, which won the Caldecott Medal, was initially controversial due to its depiction of unruly behavior and ambiguous emotional tone. However, it was later recognized as a revolutionary work that respected children’s inner lives and psychological complexity. This theme continued in his later works, including In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There, which formed a loose trilogy exploring the emotional and imaginative experiences of childhood. These books, celebrated for their dreamlike narratives and lush illustrations, often tackled fears, fantasies, and the challenges of growing up.
Throughout his career, Sendak illustrated more than a hundred books, working with authors such as Ruth Krauss and Else Holmelund Minarik. His visual style—characterized by its intricate detail, dynamic line work, and expressive characters—evolved over the decades, but always retained an unmistakable emotional intensity. He also designed sets and costumes for operas and ballets, bringing his imaginative worlds to the stage. Notably, he created productions for works by Mozart and Prokofiev, combining his love of classical music with theatrical design.
Sendak was known for his sharp wit, fierce independence, and deep empathy for children. He openly criticized the sanitized and moralistic tone of much of children's publishing, insisting instead that young readers deserved stories that acknowledged their full emotional range, including fear, grief, anger, and wonder. He was also an openly gay man in a long-term relationship, though he only spoke publicly about his sexuality later in life.
Later in his career, Sendak continued to produce new work, collaborate with artists and institutions, and advocate for intellectual freedom. His final books, including Bumble-Ardy and My Brother’s Book, reflected both a return to his childhood memories and a meditation on aging, love, and mortality. Though his stories often ventured into the dark or surreal, they remained rooted in a deep respect for the emotional reality of children and a belief in the power of imagination to confront life's challenges.
Maurice Sendak’s legacy endures in the countless writers and illustrators he inspired, the cultural impact of his stories, and the enduring affection readers of all ages hold for his wild things, mischievous children, and tender monsters. Through his work, he redefined what children’s literature could be: rich, honest, haunting, and, above all, deeply human.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
October 16, 2022
A beautiful and poetic book. Children play outside in the dusk on a warm night. Simple and profound. The story takes you back to being a child, feeling the grass under your bare feet and cartwheeling without a worry in the world apart from bedtime coming too soon.
March 2, 2019
Magic. This book is a delight and stunning. It conveys that magic feeling of how right the world can be as a child on a lovely evening with friends and a feeling of freedom.
Maurice Sendak is once again the illustrator. He must have illustrated every other book out at the time. He was one busy bee. There are 2 pages of black and white drawing with text and then there is a whole page spread of no words and this beautiful detailed painting of the children jumping under the moon. They are stunning work. Such detail and it conveys such a feeling of magic.
The story is so simple, children jumping in the moonlight playing and enjoying being alive.
My niece loved this line: “The sunflowers lean. They fall asleep to dream of tomorrow’s sun.” We grow sunflowers each year and she loved that statement. She knows how the heads follow the sun and she said, “ yes, that must be what they dream of.” The text was so compelling that the nephew wanted to go out and jump around in the moonlight. We had to tell him it was too cold and it’s not a full moon. The timing has to be just right.
The niece loved the story and she gave this 5 stars and the nephew gave this 4 stars. It had us all under its spell.
Maurice Sendak is once again the illustrator. He must have illustrated every other book out at the time. He was one busy bee. There are 2 pages of black and white drawing with text and then there is a whole page spread of no words and this beautiful detailed painting of the children jumping under the moon. They are stunning work. Such detail and it conveys such a feeling of magic.
The story is so simple, children jumping in the moonlight playing and enjoying being alive.
My niece loved this line: “The sunflowers lean. They fall asleep to dream of tomorrow’s sun.” We grow sunflowers each year and she loved that statement. She knows how the heads follow the sun and she said, “ yes, that must be what they dream of.” The text was so compelling that the nephew wanted to go out and jump around in the moonlight. We had to tell him it was too cold and it’s not a full moon. The timing has to be just right.
The niece loved the story and she gave this 5 stars and the nephew gave this 4 stars. It had us all under its spell.
March 1, 2019
This was lovely! Not sure why it isn't more widely read -- perhaps parents now are uncomfortable with the idea of children playing outside at night?
June 26, 2019
Yes, I laughed with recognition. So this text/illustrations did capture those feelings of being young and outdoors playing after dark. I was glad when the pages had the color illustrations. I didn’t like the black & white ones here as much even though on their own some of them were wonderful; going back and forth between color and not color felt jarring to me though. Very poetic text and many of the illustrations were lovely and evocative. I’m not normally a huge Sendak fan but I did enjoy the pictures here, especially the dreamy facial expressions of the children and the colorful nature scenes, and others too. It’s a lovely book. I think children will be enchanted by this book. It would make a great bedtime story. 3-1/2 stars
June 28, 2018
You may not believe this, but kids used to play outdoors on warm summer nights. A wonderful, nostalgic look at the way things were. It brought back some lovely memories.
July 14, 2015
This book makes me feel nostalgic. I remember as a child running outside in the moonlight, playing and dancing like the Moon Jumpers do in this book. The pictures evoke the mood perfectly. The story is one of a time not that long ago, and I wonder if children today play in the darkened yard the way I did then. I want to share this book with my children and remind them to play in the moonlight too sometimes.
May 9, 2020
Maurice Sendak was already one of my favorite children’s authors and illustrators before I saw this book, but his illustrations of these children playing outside at night took me right back to my own childhood. I love the way he depicts the glow of the moon on the tree branches and on the lawn, and that one of the little boys looks just a tiny bit like Max. Janice May Udry also gets major kudos for lines like, “We climb the tree just to be in a tree at night.” Why do kids do things? Often just to do them. This book captures that feeling of being out at night just for the sake of it in a magical and timeless way.
Read at a moon-themed family story time at my house on 7/19/19: https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com...
Read at a moon-themed family story time at my house on 7/19/19: https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com...
January 15, 2014
Calling themselves the moon jumpers, they twirl and swirl and play silly monster games.
Singing and dancing, they celebrate life and the lovely moon glow.
After reading a number of books containing Sendak's illustrations, I was pleasantly surprised that the only darkness in this tale was the shadows cast on the lawn from playful delight.
Sendak can indeed get a little heavy at times, and thus it was a pleasant surprise to absorb the beauty of a fun story with beautiful illustrations.
It is summer time and reading this book brought back childhood memories of playing tag, of catching fire flies and placing them in glass jars, of watching for bats for fear they would swoop in my hair, and I remembered the sound of the Mister Softee ice cream truck and how anxious we were to get a treat.
And, I remember the call of mothers throughout the neighborhood beckoning children to come when the day is done.
Singing and dancing, they celebrate life and the lovely moon glow.
After reading a number of books containing Sendak's illustrations, I was pleasantly surprised that the only darkness in this tale was the shadows cast on the lawn from playful delight.
Sendak can indeed get a little heavy at times, and thus it was a pleasant surprise to absorb the beauty of a fun story with beautiful illustrations.
It is summer time and reading this book brought back childhood memories of playing tag, of catching fire flies and placing them in glass jars, of watching for bats for fear they would swoop in my hair, and I remembered the sound of the Mister Softee ice cream truck and how anxious we were to get a treat.
And, I remember the call of mothers throughout the neighborhood beckoning children to come when the day is done.
May 29, 2015
**** Caldecott Honor (1960) ****
I liked the images by Maurice Sendak, although only half of the pictures are colored. The prose struck me as being a bit banal and florid and not all that appealing. Frankly, I liked the pictures of the cat more than anything else. A bit boring for children I think.
I liked the images by Maurice Sendak, although only half of the pictures are colored. The prose struck me as being a bit banal and florid and not all that appealing. Frankly, I liked the pictures of the cat more than anything else. A bit boring for children I think.
July 6, 2019
See also the book in this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..., especially the posts made July 2019.
October 24, 2022
Four kids frolic under the moon before bedtime. Good for them. Dull for me.
July 29, 2013
When I picked up this book to read I did not know that it was an old story and was surprised to see the 1959 copyright date. Now I realize that this is part of a rerelease of Sendak's illustrated books in memory and honor. I'm surprised I've never heard of this before because it is fabulous. I can see why it is an honor book. The text is lyrical and poetic with a rhythm all it's own. Each page set alternates with black and white illustration and text to full color illustration void of any written words. It is enchanting and beautiful. These opinions are formed from an ARC of a 2013 republication and I cannot wait to see a real copy because it's great.
A Tree Is Nice is our first read for Memoria Press Junior Kindergarten, and I'm pairing it with another by Janice May Udry in The Moon Jumpers. Both stories are alternating full color, with black and white illustrations and while using different artists, both are enchanting. Definitely fuel for the imagination.
*Thanks to HarperCollins for providing an ARC for review.*
A Tree Is Nice is our first read for Memoria Press Junior Kindergarten, and I'm pairing it with another by Janice May Udry in The Moon Jumpers. Both stories are alternating full color, with black and white illustrations and while using different artists, both are enchanting. Definitely fuel for the imagination.
*Thanks to HarperCollins for providing an ARC for review.*
February 16, 2015
The Moon Jumpers is a 1960 Caldecott Honor book. It is wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated. The story follows four children as they play outdoors. They run, dance,play tag, climb trees, tell ghost stories and jump, but can't touch the moon. The story brings back memories of the night time play I enjoyed as a child. I can relate to the disappointment they feel as mom calls them in for the night with, "it's time." The picture depicts their sadness as they follow the cat from the darkness of the moonlit night towards the light of the open door. The pictures alternate between small black and white and large double page color. The color pictures are especially beautiful for their use of light. My favorite is the picture of the children looking up at the moon as the cat sits on a tree limb. The use of the light from the moon and shadows makes a realistic depiction of a moonlit night in the woods and the incredible detail in the tree's leaves and needles and all the blades of grass made me go back to picture again and again. This book's pictures were done by Maurice Sendak four years before he did Where the Wild Things Are.
April 12, 2011
I thought this one was just okay, although maybe I would come to like it more after multiple rereads. I do remember the magical feeling of playing games outside in the yard at night with other kids, and something of that feeling is captured here. But I felt like it was broken up a bit with the use of alternating black and white pages containing text and color pictures with no text. I would have enjoyed the book a lot more with all color illustrations. The color illustrations were more in line with what I expect from Maurice Sendak, while the black and white illustrations weren't all that impressive. This won a Caldecott Honor in 1960.
January 8, 2015
Descrierea poetizată (dar nu în versuri rimate) a unei nopţi de vară cu lună plină. Nişte copii se distrează în ultimele momente ale zilei deja trecute. Textul mi s-a părut cam plictisitor, chiar dacă copiii cântau, dansau, urcau în copaci, spuneau istorii de groază, săreau să ajungă luna, îşi imaginau că sunt pe o insulă, ori că un uriaş se plimbă prin grădină. Pe lângă cei patru copii sunt prezenţi şi părinţii lor, o bufniţă, o pisică, doi peştişori, o broască şi un fluture, jucării în nisip, vântul, trandafirii din grădină. Dar textul tot pare plat, amorf. Ilustraţiile color produc un efect de poveste, de vis, de ireal. Copacii, iarba, florile, casele, cerul, luna, copiii parcă iradiază din interior o lumină fosforescentă. Imaginile monocromatice sunt mai puţin impresionante şi chiar destramă magia nopţii fosforescente, readucându-te în realitatea unei nopţi reci, întunecoase, triste, şi pline de oboseala de peste zi. Ultima imagine, chiar dacă e una în culori, pare tristă oricum, deoarece geamurile nu mai sunt luminate din interior, semn că toţi dorm, lipsesc din imagine copiii, cei care cu adevărat creau atmosfera de poveste, iar luna pe cer nu mai e de aur, caldă, ci alb-argintie şi rece.
Dacă ar fi fost un poem în versuri poate era bun de citit ori de cântat copiilor înainte de somn.
Dacă ar fi fost un poem în versuri poate era bun de citit ori de cântat copiilor înainte de somn.
November 11, 2019
This is a beautifully illustrated picture book, with images that allow for deeper thought and consideration of the characters and their thoughts. The images tell us more than the story, and can open up discussion about how we comprehend the images to develop comprehension skills. Within the images, many of the conventional illustrative techniques are used, and could therefore also be discussed with this text.
October 4, 2019
Fantastic illustrations. This book could be given to children and provoke a discussion about night and day. However, it has no clear narrative so the focus would instead have to be on the children and their emotions and the changing world around them rather than the story. Nether the less a really nice children's book.
January 25, 2012
This book to me is all about childhood. It is about children dreaming of touching the moon. Doing everything they can to touch it. It was very interesting to see all of the different things these kids did to touch the moon becuase i could see real children doing these things.
August 20, 2013
Another Caldecott nomination for Sendak - the illustrations are as lovely as the story.
October 24, 2022
Some of the pictures are nice and that experience of being outside after dark on a summer night is captured I guess, but that is literally all this book has going for it. There is no story and there is no point. A mood and a few somewhat pretty pictures is not nearly enough for me.
May 17, 2019
Enchanting pictures and story—even though nothing really happens. My four-year-old wanted to play outside in the moonlight too.
March 4, 2025
Fun. Another moon book!
April 30, 2015
The Moon Jumpers is about a group of siblings who play in the moonlight when it is night time and have all kinds of adventures and imagine many different things. This book is a lyrical story about four children who embrace the nightly summer sky with their black cat. This book is a fictional children's picture book with a lyrical format and reading level of about preschool to third grade because the text is for moderate to simple readers.
Comments/Observations: This book theme is using your imagination and I see bonding as a clear message and theme. I was looking for a gender or race this book addressed but there weren't any. My emotional readers response to The Moon Jumpers was that it brought me back to childhood when my summers were filled with no worries and I had a more wild imagination.
Questions I am still considering: There are no questions that I still have except, what is the purpose of the black cat on every page? I wonder if there is more of a meaning to the cat on every page or if it is there for kids to recognize while reading.
How this book may be used in a classroom: I would use this book in my classroom probably with third graders. I could use this book to teach about the moon and astronomy. This is something I think would really capture the kids attention. I could also use this book in reading and writing to show students literary elements and illustrations in a book and how they affect what the text is saying because in this book there are alternating pages from color to black and white.
Udry, May. J. (1959). The Moon Jumpers. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.
Comments/Observations: This book theme is using your imagination and I see bonding as a clear message and theme. I was looking for a gender or race this book addressed but there weren't any. My emotional readers response to The Moon Jumpers was that it brought me back to childhood when my summers were filled with no worries and I had a more wild imagination.
Questions I am still considering: There are no questions that I still have except, what is the purpose of the black cat on every page? I wonder if there is more of a meaning to the cat on every page or if it is there for kids to recognize while reading.
How this book may be used in a classroom: I would use this book in my classroom probably with third graders. I could use this book to teach about the moon and astronomy. This is something I think would really capture the kids attention. I could also use this book in reading and writing to show students literary elements and illustrations in a book and how they affect what the text is saying because in this book there are alternating pages from color to black and white.
Udry, May. J. (1959). The Moon Jumpers. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.
September 4, 2025
I did love playing out in the yard when I was little and the moon was full and bright. The glow it cast made things look enchanted; and it really was the best for playing things like Tag and Kick the Can. Definitely a one-of-a-kind story.
Ages: 4 - 8
Here’s a few of our bedtime favs: watch my reel!
Content Considerations: The father smokes a pipe. Children dance. Mentions children tell ghost stories.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide Content Considerations, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
If you’re considering a book or looking for a new title to read, check out my highly categorized shelves, read my reviews and Friend or Follow me to spiff up your feed with clean, wholesome, living books.
I have an Instagram account that’s pretty bookishly unique too!
Ages: 4 - 8
Here’s a few of our bedtime favs: watch my reel!
Content Considerations: The father smokes a pipe. Children dance. Mentions children tell ghost stories.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide Content Considerations, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
If you’re considering a book or looking for a new title to read, check out my highly categorized shelves, read my reviews and Friend or Follow me to spiff up your feed with clean, wholesome, living books.
I have an Instagram account that’s pretty bookishly unique too!
December 5, 2010
This book is about young children playing outside at night. They dance and somersault in the grass, tell ghost stories,sing songs and make up poems--all under the glow of the moon. They jump up high--knowing no one can touch the moon. When their mother called them in, they said they were not children--they were moon jumpers!
This book made me smile! These children were creative and imaginative--at night! This type of play at night may not be safe in many places these days; however, it was at the time this book was written (in the 1950s).
This book made me smile! These children were creative and imaginative--at night! This type of play at night may not be safe in many places these days; however, it was at the time this book was written (in the 1950s).
March 2, 2016
I was excited to read this book because it's illustrator is Maurice Sendak from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are"! I loved the illustration's in this book and the imagination. Children take the simplest things and make them grand, the stuff we take for granted is their magic lands or their landscape for their adventures. This book was fun and mysterious and the illustrations made it that much better!
November 25, 2017
• 1960 Caldecott Honor Book •
This story of kids playing during a summer night brought back some childhood memories! Really pretty, quiet book with lovely illustrations.
Materials used: unlisted
Typeface used: unlisted
This story of kids playing during a summer night brought back some childhood memories! Really pretty, quiet book with lovely illustrations.
Materials used: unlisted
Typeface used: unlisted
August 15, 2017
Gorgeous pictures and fun read.
October 14, 2017
BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS!
December 12, 2017
Beautiful illustations by Sendak. The story is of four siblings playing in the moonlight.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews