Writer, critic, blogger Maria Popova (Figuring), perhaps best known for the website The Marginalian, partners with author/illustrator Sarah Jacoby (Doris) to create The Coziest Place on the Moon, a soothing, enlightening picture book that celebrates the rewards of solitude.
Re, who resembles an adorable porcupine with a golden-tinted, sky-blue dye job, wakes up one Tuesday in July "feeling like the loneliest creature on Earth." Not one to wallow, Re resolves "to go live in the coziest place on the Moon." At 7:26--"a pretty number, a pretty hour"--Re sails 1.255 seconds ("because light travels at the speed of dreams") into space and lands "on the edge of the Sea of Tranquility." Reaching their destination could take "a whole lunar day, or 15 Earth-days." Re walks and walks--"making little puff-clouds of powdery dust with each step"--until arriving at "a perfect nook pitted deep into the Sea of Tranquility." There Re experiences "what it feels like to be happy-alone instead of lonely... that feeling which feels like hearing your own voice singing you back to yourself." Re settles into "a secret underground cave... and everybody knows that there is no better place to feel happy-alone." Then Re hears "a huff, then a gurgle," which belong to Mi, a flaxen marsupial-like voyager who also fled Earth after "feeling like the loneliest creature." The coziest nook seems to have plenty of space to create "two parallel tranquilities"--ideal for solitude, but also to share company whenever they need a bit of synchronous harmony.
Popova's concluding author's note discusses the scientific reality of the eponymous "coziest place[s]"--indicating NASA's July 2022 announcement of the existence of "cylindrical pits on the Moon." Learning about the possibility of "inhabit[ing] caves on another celestial body" provided Popova with personal comfort during "a period of acute loneliness." Artist Jacoby harmoniously matches Popova's introspective verses with welcoming, ethereal whimsy, garbing Re in a yellow-polka-dotted orange hat and scarf for their lunar journey and packing Re's suitcase with bright balls of fuzzy yarn. Later, Re will cleverly transform those woolly bundles into an on-the-spot ladder to descend into the beckoning nook. Re, Jacoby shows, is a prolific knitter while Mi plays a cerulean cello while surrounded by otherworldly sculptures. Lightness abounds, from flashlights, rainbows, and, of course, starlight. This exploration of that uniquely individualized, soul-nurturing balance of time alone and time with others is an aspirational odyssey suitable for all ages. --Terry Hong
Shelf Talker: In The Coziest Place on the Moon, Maria Popova and Sarah Jacoby synergistically create enchanting lunar adventures escaping loneliness, embracing solitude.