As a parent of any child, you will relate to this book titled “Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon.” I am a packrat, who never likes to get rid of anything, and my daughter has way too many toys, so that equals her room looking like a tornado hit it most days! She will play with a toy and leave it in the middle of the floor; this adds up to tons of toys in the floor and none in the toybox!
We knew that this would be a fun book when we opened it to see a broom with an apple core, whistle, and a blue polka-dotted sock stuck in it. Harvey Moon is an African-American boy of about 12 years old. Right away, I am panicking seeing him eating jelly toast in the living room in front of the television! His mom comes in and demands that he clean his room today! We see the horror on his face as he wanted to watch Saturday morning cartoons, not clean! Then, Harvey begins to whine “Not nowwww” … as his shows are not on yet and he would miss them.
His mother says to clean his room first. The picture of his room shows clothing busting out of his dresser, the floor full of toys, leftover food like an apple core, garbage can running over, and his bed full of dirty clothes and toys. Harvey decides to put all of the dirty clothes in the hallway first. Finding a ball of gray lint, he was not sure what it was, but kept it anyway. He picks up things one by one and puts them away.
Then we notice where he is putting things away: under his rug in his room! The picture shows big bumps and lumps where he is stuffing all the things. Then he runs across his comic books which are gooey and dripping with pink stuff. He also finds library books, and even a map of the brain! Who knew? A fuzzy cookie, a dead insect, card games, goggles, a bat…all were pushed under the carpet making more lumps. Harvey calls his mom to come and check his room so he can go watch cartoons…she is very surprised, but says he can come eat lunch and then, “You and I will get started on lump number one! The End?”
A very fun book and the detailed illustrations really make it come to life, like the crumbs from the jelly toast on Harvey’s chin and his mother with her hand on her hip. The pictures are very colorful and the messy cluttered room is covered from all sides, every inch is covered with something! The illustrations are taken from different angles: some are taken from up above, looking down at the room or at Harvey as he lays on the floor whining. As he worries that he will miss all of the Saturday morning cartoons, the clock on the wall is way bigger than he is. The lines of text rhyme and make the story fun to read. Each page has a picture, but only half of the pages have a paragraph of text. We recommend for ages 4-10 years old. A book almost anyone can relate to!
We enjoyed the funny unexpected ending, rhyming words that are uncommon in children’s rhymes, and wonderful cluttered illustrations. The surprise of where did Harvey put everything was unexpected in the book.
More by this contributor:
Eight Steps to Spring Clean and Organize Your Child’s Cluttered Bedroom