“Dear God,
“I heard a cosmic story and wondered if it’s true. The Moon was stealing glory and this is what he’d do.”
So begins a highly enjoyable and quite profound new children’s book from Crossway Books, cleverly titled Fool Moon Rising. Husband and wife team Kristi and T. Lively Fluharty wrote and illustrated this “rhyming, rollicking tale” about the moon’s prideful folly in believing that his radiance and light actually emanate from himself! The moon’s boasting and posturing prove very annoying to all who have to endure it, until finally one day the proud fellow catches a glimpse of the real star of the show…the sun. The moon’s heartfelt repentance, and consequent boasting in another’s true glory, and not his own, are a great end to a meaningful tale.
At 40 pages, each humorously illustrated with larger than life planets, outer space monkeys, and a host of other creatures irritated at the moon’s foolish self-absorption, Fool Moon Rising is aimed at children 3-7 years old (although my 13-year-old and I both relished it!) I haven’t seen a children’s book before written along the theme of learning to boast only in God, and to give Him the glory for what we have and are.
Enough can’t be said about the rich artwork. T.Lively (Tom) Fluharty is an illustrator whose artwork has appeared in Time magazine, Sports Illustrated and Focus on the Family. Deep purple and blue backgrounds give the pages the mysterious feel of space. For the outer space loving youngster there is a short study guide and some fun moon facts at the back of the book.
Though the poor moon (which in real life has never boasted of its own glory at all, but has always done just what it was created to do: reflect the glory of the sun!) gets an undeserved bad rap in the story, it’s all in good fun, and communicates an important message for old and young moon gazers alike: “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7, NLT)
You can purchase Fool Moon Rising here. Pick up a few as Christmas gifts for all the little star-gazers you know and love.