Many Moons

Harcourt, Brace and Company published Many Moons in 1943. It was James Thurber's first picture book, and with Louis Slobodkin's illustrations it won the Caldecott Medal in 1944.

The story turns on the illness of the Princess Lenore, who will not get better unless she is given the moon. The king calls in his experts, among them the Lord High Chamberlain and the Royal Wizard, and each of them explains at length why what she has asked for is impossible and how much it would cost to try.

The person who solves the problem is the court jester, who simply asks the princess what she thinks the moon is and how big. The book has been illustrated more than once since: Marc Simont provided new pictures for a 1990 edition, and there was an earlier one using woodcuts by Philip Reed, though later printings went back to Slobodkin's drawings. Thurber's story has been read ever since as a small argument about expertise, since the king's advisers know a great deal about the moon and cannot help, while the jester, who knows nothing, finds out what the child actually wants.