Moonsong: A Musical Tale of Magical Friendships

by Denise Gallagher

Overview

Fulki's village lost its moon. But Fulki knows a secret. She befriended a tiger who taught her the Moonsong. But the townspeople forbid befriending wild beasts- with teeth and claws and no manners at all. And, the townspeople forbid singing of any kind, for it calls the wild beasts. Will Fulki's friendship with a tiger and their song bring back the long lost moon? Follow Fulki and her forbidden friendship with a wild beast as they learn from each other love, acceptance, and what it means to bring harmony to our natural world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997958065
Publisher:	Little Press
Publication date:	10/01/2021
Pages:	38
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Denise Gallagher is an author and illustrator from Lafayette, Louisiana. She is the Illustration Coordinator for the Louisiana/Mississippi Region of SCBWI and is also a part of the Teaching Artist Program in her local community. Denise’s other picture books include, "A Tip Tap Tale" published in 2017 by UL University Press, and a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She is also the author/illustrator of "Peg Bearskin, A Traditional Newfoundland Tale" published by Running the Goat Press which short listed for the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration in the 2020 Atlantic Book Awards and received the Aesop Prize by the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society. When Denise is not holed up in her art studio creating beautiful characters in her unique style, she is enjoying the glorious culture that Louisiana has to offer.

Editorial Reviews

2021-07-27
The moon has disappeared from the sky above Fulki’s village.

Around the same time, a group of elders declares that the villagers should stop singing. The reason, they say, is that singing attracts dangerous animals from the nearby jungle. When the singing stops and the moon is gone, the sounds of beasts grunting, growling, and bellowing make all the villagers quiver with fear—all the villagers, that is, except for Fulki. Fulki is secretly friends with a tiger, whom she regularly plays with in the jungle. When Fulki tells the tiger that the elders have outlawed singing to protect the villagers from wild beasts, the tiger is puzzled. After all, the tiger is both a beast and very well behaved. The tiger then confesses that he, also, has lost his moon and that every night he sings to try to bring it back. The tiger then teaches Fulki to sing for the moon. Their lesson leads to some wonderfully surprising results. The book’s lyrical text makes great use of devices like onomatopoeia, rendering the story a delight to read out loud. In the beginning, the plot is difficult to follow: It is unclear whether the elders outlaw singing because the moon has disappeared or because they are afraid of wild beasts or both. The fanciful illustrations loosely make use of Eastern motifs, but it is not clear where the book is set geographically. Human characters have brown skin and purple hair.

The beginning’s muddled, but the message is clear: Sing your heart out. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews