The Moon Is a Ball

Ed Franck

Thé Tjong-Khing

Gecko Press, 2023

80pp., hbk., RRP $A27.99

9781776574933

Panda and Squirrel have an unbreakable friendship. They can’t live without each other and do everything together: lie on the rocks to look at the moon, take walks, play games. One of their journeys lasts for only two steps, another day they discover a newly hatched duckling. But like most friends, sometimes they argue but they always make up again.

This is a book of nine short stories about the responsibilities and rewards of friendship, helping younger children understand that you don’t always have to like the same things as your friend or agree with everything they say or do to remain friends.  That sometimes the richest friendships are those built on the differences that each brings to the relationship. After all, could there be aby combination more physically different than a panda and a squirrel? 

Translated from the Dutch edition by David Colmer, and richly illustrated it offers many opportunities for discussion, including asking the child what they might do in a similar circumstance.