LITTLE MOAR AND THE MOON

There are two things about autumn that little Moar doesn’t like: shorter days and the moon.

The days grow shorter and the face on the moon seems to watch him as he walks home from school. The moon has a creepy half-smile, and it makes him afraid. After school, little Moar joins his friends for ball practice and a boisterous game of tag but loses track of the time. He hurries along, only to be distracted when he stops to help his cousin feed the sled dogs. The dogs are happy, which makes little Moar feel good. But then he notices that the sky is already dark and sees “the faint glow of the moon behind the clouds.” Little Moar is determined to reach home before the moon—and that half-smile—appears again. He takes a chance and rushes home, taking advantage of temporary cloud cover to reach safety before he sees the moon—and the moon sees him. At home, his mother comforts her panting son by explaining that the moon “is just a big rock with bumps and shadows on the surface.” The sharp edges of the animation-style characters, all Inuit, stand out against the soft, watercolorlike backgrounds and illustrate the dreamlike feeling of autumn in far northern Canada, with its short days and long nights.

A seasonal tale that will calm and comfort.