Written by Maya Soetoro-Ng, half-sister of President Obama, this lyrical story relays the loving wisdom of their late mother to a young granddaughter she never met. Little Suhaila wishes she had known her grandma, who (her mother tells her) would have wrapped her arms round the whole world if she could. And one night Suhaila gets her wish when a golden ladder appears at her window and Grandma Annie, arms outstretched, invites the girl to come along with her on a journey. In a rich and deeply personal narrative, Maya Soetoro-Ng distils her mother's love for family, her compassion and her ethic of service into the story of a remarkable meeting between grandmother and grandchild. Yuyi Morales's vibrant, emotionally resonant artwork illuminates this dreamlike tale, reminding us that loved ones lost are always with us - and that sometimes we need only to look at the moon and remember.

 

This book has been graded for interest at 3-5 years.

There are 48 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2012 by Walker Books Ltd .

Maya Soetoro-Ng, a former high-school history teacher and university instructor, was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is the maternal half-sister of President Barack Obama. She says Ladder to the Moon, her first picture book, was inspired by her young daughter Suhaila's questions about her grandmother. Maya Soetoro-Ng lives in Hawaii with her husband and two daughters. Award-winning illustrator Yuyi Morales was born and brought up in Mexico, and now lives with her family in northern California. Yuyi Morales is an artist, a Brazilian folk dancer, a puppet maker and the former host of a Spanish-language storytelling radio show for children. She grew up in Mexico and now lives with her husband, son and cat in Northern California.