Night Catch

My husband will soon leave for Kuwait, leaving behind our 4 yo daughter and me. I've been researching various deployment books since we learned he was going. Overall, this is one of the best books. It is service neutral (which is difficult to find). The story is about love and separation more than the actual reason they are gone. The illustrations are lovely and typical of quality children's books as opposed to deployment books that look like they were drawn by children. While our daughter becomes sad when her dad reads it to her, I feel as if it will help a lot when he leaves.

My husband deployed for a 15 month tour to Iraq last year and he and the kids love to stargaze together. This book was so great for them to read before he left, and the kids keep asking me to read it to them all the time now that he's gone.

We bought this book so I could video tape my husband reading it to our daughter who is due in a couple of weeks. My husband just deployed a couple days ago, and reading it brought him to tears. He will miss his daughter's birth, and miss out on a lot of major milestones-but at least when he comes home sometime in the next 6-12 months, she will recognize him. To her, seeing him reading Night Catch on the TV and seeing him on the webcam-it will be like she is meeting Big Bird when homecoming comes around!! Great overall story, very well written, with beautiful illustrations.

As an Army wife, the hardest thing I have to endure is watching my kids say goodbye to their dad for an entire year as he goes to Iraq for the second time. There will be nothing more important to them during this time than routine and ritual to keep Daddy close in their hearts. This book will be a great tool for helping them keep Daddy part of their nighttime routine. The story is about a father, a soldier, who is being sent to serve in a far off location (in what looks like Iraq but it's never specifically stated). The father proposes a special nightly game of catch with his son in which his son finds Polaris each night before climbing in bed. He instructs the boy to, "Breathe in deep, then blow out hard to send that North Star sailing far." Then Dad tells his son, "Then close your eyes and have sweet dreams of playing catch amid moonbeams. The star will travel all the night while you are sleeping, tucked in tight. I'll work while waiting patiently for that North Star to come to me. Then as you open up your eyes, I'll spot it in my darkening skies. I'll catch that star with a grand salute on my end of its nightly route." The lyrical story goes on to say how dad will send the star back and they will send it back and forth until the end of his time abroad. "Then when I'm finished working there, I'll blow a final puff of air. I'll board the plane and ask the crew to race that star right back to you." Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! I can't say enough about the sweet but simple nature of the story or of the illustrations, which are magical and relaxing at the same time. As my family prepares for a year-long deployment, I'm stocking up on books. I'm glad to see that I have more of a selection than basic (non-military) separation books. Really, because of the unique nature of this experience, military kids really deserve to have a story that they can perfectly relate to. I also got "Daddy's in Iraq, but I Want him Back" and loved it. I have younger kids (preschoolers/toddler) so I want no mention of war and danger, only something they can relate to about Daddy having to be gone a long time in service of his country and to help people. This book is absolutely one I would recommend to friends.

I heard Brenda Ehrmantraut read this book at a SCBWI conference and was incredibly moved by both her lyrical prose and the sweetness of the story. This book should be gifted to every child with a parent stationed overseas. It's absolutely beautiful.