The Dark Side of the Moon

Pop quiz: Which scenario would strike today’s children as more implausible?

A drove of pigs sneaking out of their tastefully wallpapered bedroom to frolic by the light of the moon, or homeless children selling actual print copies of newspapers by barking out provocative headlines — say, about life on the moon — to passersby?

Either way, the moon’s enchantment still holds strong in two very different picture books about lunar adventure and earthbound reality. “The Great Moon Hoax” tells the amusing true story of an elaborate prank by The New York Sun, in 1835, in which fictitious headlines touted the discovery, via a telescope in South Africa, of life on the moon.

Stephen Krensky, a prolific author of picture books and early readers, uses a fictionalized account of two crate-dwelling newsboys, Jake and Charlie, to describe how the fledgling broadsheet invented the tale to drum up circulation at a time when newspapers viciously competed with one another rather than with the Internet.

Darkly imaginative illustrations by Josée Bisaillon, a Canadian artist, lend the story a tinge of social commentary. Using a mix of drawing, collage and digital montage to depict both the fantastical upright “moon beaver” as well as the gritty urban terrain of life back on earth, Bisaillon shows why readers might have been so ready to believe. For the newsboys, the intrigue lies mainly in the riches implied by the moon’s “equitriangular temple, built of polished sapphire.” An afterword by the author, alas, reveals all.

“Ten Moonstruck Piglets” a traditional bedtime book, stands out from its more pedantic brethren through the clever cadences of its rhyming text (“Through the mud wallow, beyond the wide hollow, leapfrogging piglets in turns lead and follow”) and its rich illustrations. When clouds cover the moon “and deep shadows loom,” the frightened piglets squeal out for a rescue and a return home.

Given the pigs’ doleful expressions throughout, as rendered by Carll Cneut, a Ghent-based illustrator painting in the spirit of Van Eyck, the frolic may have been more amusing in theory than in practice. Even in picture books, the moonstruck eventually come back down to earth.