The Moon King

Written and illustrated by Cara Kansala

Breakwater Books

978-1-550818185

36 pp.

Ages 2-7

February 2020 

Newfoundland author and artist Cara Kansala brings the energy of her Maritime home to a story about The Moon King whose dancing unintentionally unleashes the night and its many stars across the land.

From The Moon King by Cara Kansala

In rhyming verse that carries the story like a milky way of celestial elements, Cara Kansala tells of the Moon King's distress at releasing the stars of the night sky onto the land.

They settled on the rocky cliffs 
and tip-toed into caves.
Some drifted into firths and fiords,
some waltzed upon the waves.

The Moon King watched the landscape bloom
with the faintest, starry light.
The sea glowed like a streetlamp,
he had tipped over the night!

In her dazzlingly coloured acrylic paintings, Cara Kansala depicts the Moon King's desperation to return the stars to the heavens, with the help of wildlife woken from slumber. There is the Arctic hare, the moose, the black bear, the fox, wolves and even a whale who are enlisted to help gather the stars before a flock of red birds fly them back up to the night.

From The Moon King by Cara Kansala

And all the birds in all the land,

they each plucked out a star

and flew them back up to the night

where dreams and wishes are.

From The Moon King by Cara Kansala

Though young children will be lulled to sleep with this bedtime story's rhythm, the energy in Cara Kansala's artwork may invigorate them to investigate more closely. There may be a blue, black and turquoise night sky background peeking out from behind each illustration but those brilliant stars and menagerie of Newfoundland fauna urge closer scrutiny. You'll get your little ones to bed eventually but I suspect that it may take several repetitions of The Moon King's reading before it will happen readily. Fortunately with the stars back where they belong, their sleep will be filled with goodness and light.