The Mousecat and the Moonicorns on Halloween Night

by Heather MacLean, Heather MacLean (Illustrator)

Overview

It is October 31st. The orange harvest moon has no moonbeams. In the stables, horses feel uneasy when scary creatures appear in the night sky. Four kittens are born. One is abandoned by her mother because she is not suitably dressed in black for a Halloween ride on a broomstick. A loving horse rescues the tiny creature, no bigger than a mouse, and she is named the Mousecat. The Mousecat has most unusual eyes, which enable the strangest, scariest, and most wonderful things to happen when she goes on her own Halloween sky ride with the Moonicorns and moonicorn fairies. How could it be possible for such a tiny creature to experience so much in one dark, dark night?
Could this amazing adventure be a dream? Maybe, but the next night, the moon notices the bow of a violin near a pumpkin patch. An old skeleton, in his hurry to reach his coffin before sunrise, had dropped the bow. People and animals also noticed it, and left it there. A year later, after the next Halloween night, it was gone.
A sequel to The Moonicorn Fairies, this book once again combines fact and fantasy using Classical music, storytelling, and art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452576183
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	08/02/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	10 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Heather MacLean uses colourful illustrations and descriptive text to bring to life an exciting and terrifying night of adventure involving the Moonicorns (unicorns that live on the moon), the Moonicorn fairies, earth horses, witches, wizards, black cats, pumpkins, skeletons, and... one tiny, abandoned, mouse-sized kitten with magic in her eyes.
Through this delightful story, children will appreciate a famous Classical music piece while developing listening and reading skills. As a shared activity with parents, teachers and caregivers, children can expand their vocabulary, communication, musical knowledge, and imagination through art.

Read an Excerpt

The Mousecat and the Moonicorns on Halloween Night

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By Heather MacLean, Diana Lynn MacLean

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2013 Heather MacLean
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-7617-6

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CHAPTER 1

It is October 31st and the night is dark. The moon is a large orange ball in the sky. She has no moonbeams. Ghostly white clouds stare at her and there is an eerie feeling as if something is about to happen. A large black cat, with orange eyes, howls.

Later that night the cat gives birth to four kittens. Three of these kittens have pitch black fur. One has orange eyes, the other green eyes and the third has blue eyes.

The mother cat decides that these three kittens would be perfect companions for a witch or wizard on HALLOWEEN NIGHT.

The fourth kitten is different. Although her front paws are black, the rest of her fur is white and dark grey all over. Her eyes are an unusual mixture of blue, green and orange. The mother cat has never seen a kitten like this before. She is so small that she could be mistaken for a mouse.

She decides at once to abandon this strange kitten. The kitten is not suitably dressed for Halloween. Grabbing her by the scruff of her neck, the mother cat drops her into an empty bucket in a nearby horse stable.

What the mother cat does not know, as she runs away from the terrified kitten, is that this kitten has MAGIC in her eyes.

Up in the Halloween sky, wizards throw black magic over the clouds. The mother cat places her three black kittens on a broomstick. They cling for dear life as the broomstick whizzes around three times before lifting into the sky. The horses watch in astonishment. An owl hoots. A bat skims past a horse's nose, making him sneeze! It is the scariest night of the year.

In the stable, the tiny mouse kitten manages to tip over her bucket at last!

Spilling out into fresh hay, she felt the warm breath from the nostrils of a large horse. The tiny creature found it comforting as Princess Indiana nuzzled her nose against her. She placed her tiny paws on Princess Indiana's nose and clawed her way up to the horse's head before settling between her ears, where it felt warm and safe. As the kitten snuggled down she tickled the horse, making her blink and twitch her ears.

Prince Diamond, in the stable next door, could not understand why Princess Indiana had a MOUSE on her head! He then whinnied with surprise and curiosity when this mouse spoke like a CAT! The little kitten did not know whether she was a mouse or a cat, so the horses named her THE MOUSECAT.

Because she is so tiny she is referred to as the mouse kitten in much of this story.

On the orange moon, the moonicorns and moonicorn fairies were bored. They knew about the trick or treating and Halloween dress up parties on the earth, and were keen to join in. But a moonbeam was needed to slide to the earth.

Living on the moon were luminous moon creatures called the lunar-bugs. They were always changing colour and had to be a different colour from the moon so they were easily visible. That night the lunar-bugs glowed bright green.

The tiny mouse kitten looked up at the moon with huge round eyes. Suddenly a ray of light shone from her eyes, like a laser beam, and connected with the luminous light of a lunar-bug. A moonicorn noticed this and had a bright idea. He quickly alerted another moonicorn and, without telling the moonicorn fairies, they slid to the earth on a green ray of light. They landed outside the stable doors, much to the surprise of Prince Diamond and Princess Indiana with her mouse kitten. No one knew how they had managed to ride to earth on the night of the harvest moon.

But just after arriving at Princess Indiana's stable, feeling unexpected itches and tickles, the dignified moonicorns started to wiggle and twist their heads. Suddenly, seven moonicorn fairies emerged from under their manes! They were all giggling as they had tricked the moonicorns by secretly travelling with them, despite being uninvited. They were dressed in orange and black and held tiny cauldrons filled with magic moon cookies.

A boy fairy noticed the mouse kitten. He promptly gave her a magic moon cookie and slipped the rest into his pocket without telling anyone. The mouse kitten swallowed the cookie in one gulp!
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Mousecat and the Moonicorns on Halloween Night by Heather MacLean, Diana Lynn MacLean. Copyright © 2013 Heather MacLean. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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