One of a Kind: Joone by Emily Kate Moon

MY NAME IS JOONE.

SOME PEOPLE SPELL IT J-U-N-E, BUT I SPELL IT WITH A SMILEY FACE.

Joone is not your average five-year-old girl. She insists on turning the two Os in her name into eyes and drawing in a smile underneath. Her favorite color is orange, not pink. Instead of a Teddy bear as a playmate, she has her turtle, Mr. Chin. And her house is a yurt, built by her grandfather, who is a scientist and very smart.

EVERY DAY GRANDPA TEACHES ME SOMETHING NEW.

HE SAY EVERYDAY I TEACH HIM SOMETHING NEW, TOO.

When Grandpa tells her not to wear  her favorite orange dress until it's washed, Joone doesn't.  She just plays outside in her underwear, also wearing, of course, her purple hat at all times.

When Grandpa tells her to remember to do things for others, Joone does.  She decides to take all his books off his shelves and re-arrange them by color--in "rainbow order."  And she knows just the right thing to do for the nice mail lady:  Joone leaves her a ice cream sandwich--in the mailbox! It's a surprise, all right.

In Emily Kate Moon's debut picture book, Joone (Dial Books, 2013), we meet one of those different drummer characters, one who is perfectly happy with her world, right down to the perfect tree house --with stone steps she builds for Mr. Chin (who can't climb ladders) to climb up and play with her. Moon's artwork is done in singular gouache and pencil drawings which extend her quirky character's personality perfectly against her warm and homey setting. As Kirkus says, "Joone could be a contemporary, country-dwelling cousin to Eloise: another precocious, articulate and turtle-loving child with charm to spare."