A Moonless Night [with Shira Geffen]

This is a modern fairytale about a little girl called Noga and the Moon that got lost. After Noga`s bedtime story, Daddy kisses her and turns out the light. “You won`t need the night-light tonight,” he says, “there`s a full moon in the sky.” But Noga is sad because she can`t see the moon anywhere. First she calls it and then she goes out into the street and wanders around looking for it.

Eventually, she comes to a hut deep in the forest, and there she meets a man whose head is as bald as the moon! No, he hasn`t got a moon, he says, although he`s got lots of other things. But when Noga peeps into his hut a bit later, she sees Bald Man and the Moon having a good time. So she bursts in and scolds them: she tells them how dangerous and selfish it is of the Moon to hide and leave the sky dark. Bald Man pleads that he`s lonely in the forest, and the Moon is keeping him company. But Noga persists: the Moon is important, she says. Without it, ships at sea lose their way, the jackals have nothing to howl at, and she can`t fall asleep.

So the Moon returns to the sky and casts its soft light once again. But once every month, it visits the hut deep in the forest to help Bald Man feel less lonely. And that`s why children shouldn`t be unhappy when the moon disappears. They should just think about Bald Man and the Moon having a good time.

This exquisitely illustrated book was on the National Bestseller lists for 22 weeks.