"To the Moon and Back"

Kyndall Pursley

For my children’s book I decided to write about the genre love. My story is about how a mother and child love is unconditional and limitless. It is a dedication to my mom and our favorite bedtime ritual. Love doesn’t always have to be about a couple falling in love because there’s so much more to love than that. I followed the conventions that love is able to travel through space and time while growing even deeper. I wanted to show children that no matter what parents love them more and more everyday no matter what happens because I didn’t always have that reassurance as a child. I also wanted to show the unconditional love that a child has for their parents even if they don’t understand their feelings for a while or don’t act like it because I know how it feels to not like your parent but to love them. I showed this through the little girl being confused by her mother when she says she loves the little girl to the moon and back. She had to go on an adventure to fully understand the depth of how much that truly is. I also showed it through the mother explaining to the little girl how her love grows until the little girl understands and expresses her feelings. The little girl is wild and imaginative, but has a huge heart and naturally curious about all things. The mother is calm, wise, and strong. I wanted the moon to be a symbol of love in the story because that is one of my moms and I’s sayings and means a lot to us. I also wanted the images to look like clip-art because it looks like a sticker book that a child could have put together like my mom and I did when I was younger.