Moon Song is a beautifully told and illustrated book honoring the Tlingit understanding of the relationship between darkness and light reflected in the deep winter. Michaela Goade explains in her author’s note that in winter the darkness and light cannot exist without each other, that this relationship is found in the Lingit language—and this is what inspired her to create Moon Song. 

The endpapers, both front and back, are filled with words and images of the world and the light of Moon Song in Tlingit and English. We have a chance to learn some Tlingit words, and for those who speak this language, this book is a natural opportunity to be at home.

As the book begins, we are witness to the hard work involved in not only surviving the long, cold winter on Tlingit land and islands, but also living in it with joy. Goade has gifted us a lushly illustrated insight into living in harmony with, and respect and gratitude for, the gifts that Mother Earth gives us—no matter what the climate is like or how difficult it is to thrive in it. 

Our narrator, a little girl who lives with her family on an island, introduces us to life in the winter: hard work and cold, long hours of darkness that are also filled with color and light. When family visits, her cousin is overwhelmed by the dark at bedtime and asks the narrator for a story. Our girl then tells him a story of a journey they can take into the dark, cold night on their island where the sparkle and light are present and reassuring. We are witness to the beauty and  safety of an environment, where every creature knows how to do what is best for its survival and healthy life. We see the wolves out in the forest, sea creatures diving in the bay, animals hibernating deep in burrows under the snow. After the story—a long, gentle exploration through the woods, down to the ocean shore and back home—her cousin curls up on the window seat under a warm blanket and rests, calm and happy, taking in the dark night bathed in moonlight’s silver glow.

The colors are rich and vibrant—blues, purples, greens, black. The sparkle and glimmer of the contrasting light soften the deep colors into lighter greens, pinks, turquoise, gray. Goade’s exquisite ability to have tiny sprinkles of light white that are either reflecting sparkle, or perhaps something that feels magical and wondrous. The other wondrous color contrast is the pinks and almost oranges where some kind of light is casting a brightness over flowing water or snow.

Yet another beautiful detail in this book is the traditional totem animals. Carved in wood, painted and drawn by First Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Northwest U.S. and Canadian coasts, the animals are spiritually significant and vital to life and culture of many nations, including the Tlingit. On one marvelous gatefold spread where the children are afloat in a sky filled with aurora borealis, an eagle holds the moon in its beak. And a carved totem is visible on the ground on the beach. On several pages, we glimpse a profile in the moon—perhaps the Raven. And there are more to find and study through the book. 

One of my favorite double-page spreads is the one after the children’s arrival at the beach from the woods where they glimpse a trail of sparkles in the dark blue ocean. Waves curl into turquoise and shades of light blue with bioluminescence lighting sea jellies, seals, and fish. The boy and girl are now floating above this wondrous scene, with birds flying behind them, lighter blue against the dark star-filled sky. 

Moon Song appears to be part of the Song of the Seasons series, which started with Berry Song. My annual scouring of the Caldecott Award guidelines finds no reference to series books, only that each book is to be considered for its merits, not the illustrator's body of work or previous awards (Goade won the 2021 Caldecott Medal for We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom; Berry Song was a 2023 Honor book). Likely the series detail will have little or no impact on the Committee. 

I truly hope that the Caldecott committee will honor this book with an award. But regardless of what books are awarded this year, Moon Song is a gift to us all. Goade’s choice to share this cold night world through the eyes and soul of Tlingit children is an honor. We can once again express our profound gratitude for this beauty, insight, and joy in Moon Song—to Michaela Goade, we must say: Gunalchéesh! 

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of Moon Song]