Books

MY MOMMY HUNG THE MOON: A LOVE STORY
By: Jamie Lee Curtis, 2010
Illustrated By: Laura Cornell
Harper Collins, 40 pp.

Love stories come in all shapes and sizes. Some last a lifetime, others about as long as a shooting star — but we’ll get into the average teenager’s amorous life later. This is, first and foremost, meant to be a book review, albeit a silly one.

Of course, children’s books are meant to be a little silly. That’s probably why they don’t often get reviewed by anyone other than ambitious librarians or overzealous elementary school kids, but this isn’t just any ordinary children’s book.

“My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story” (Ages 4-8, hardcover $16.99) comes from the bestselling team of illustrator Laura Cornell and writer Jamie Lee Curtis. And if you happened to be a teenage boy, or just an English speaking male with a pulse, during Ronald Reagan’s reign as President, Jamie Lee Curtis (“Trading Places,” “A Fish Called Wanda,” the far from “Perfect” aerobics one in which she put thongs on the map) was basically a modern day Marilyn Monroe, with less ditz and more sass; more of a ’85 BMW than a ’58 Chevy. They did call Jamie Lee “The Body” for Peter’s sake.

So it seemed like the Gods were surely shinning on me when I stumbled into Iconoclast Books in Ketchum, Idaho, at the very same time Jamie Lee was signing her new children’s book, “My Mommy Hung the Moon.”

Naturally, gawking over celebrities is considered taboo in most ski resorts, since famous and successful folks tend to congregate around the slopes the way ski bums gather around cheap beer and Jägermeister. But we’ve all got our weaknesses. Not to mention that nutjobs named Michael have long had uncontrollable urges for Jamie Lee — which is why I usually go by “Mike,” “Hey you,” and the occasional “Studmuffin, Sr.”

“My Mommy Hung the Moon” is a whimsical story about the strength of the bond between mother and child. Being a father, it seemed like a great excuse, or perhaps opportunity would be a better — yet less accurate — word, to bond with my boys by getting them an autographed copy. So I waited in line with a writer named Patti Murphy, who’d been trying for some time to get Jamie Lee to give her a quote for a book she was working on about “mommyisms.”

So when our turn finally came, and Jamie Lee sat a mere breathtaking few feet away, Patti asked her question and I tried not to drool on myself. Even in her fifties, Jamie Lee Curtis is still stunning. But her looks alone are not why she puts the nifty in 50.

In response to Patti’s question, “What did your mom used to say to you?” Jamie Lee answered with a laugh and a wink, “She said, ‘Shut the %$!# up and get me another drink.’”

And even though the line looks harsh in print, Jamie Lee somehow said it with a humorous tint of love. You could tell that she must have gotten some of her famous feistiness from her mom, the late Janet Leigh, and that, in Jamie Lee’s eyes, her mom was the world, which is what “My Mommy Hung the Moon” is really all about. From the book:

“She pours all the seas and sparkles each star. And then she collects one in my night-light jar. And when she paints night so jet black an deep, my mother ship rocks me gently to sleep … My mommy hung the moon. She tied it with a string. My mommy’s good at everything.”

As for the rest of the story, I’ve read “My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story” to my young boys a few times and they thoroughly enjoy it. It helps them drift off to the sweet, innocent dreams of youth. While I drop off hoping to relive steamy adolescent dreams of Jamie Lee. Love stories truly do come in all shapes and sizes.

Order a copy of “My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story” at Booky Joint in Mammoth or Spellbinder Books in Bishop.