Monsters in the Moonlight: A Yalda Night Adventure
by Sina Merabian; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Simon    40 pp.
12/25    9781534496842    $19.99

Two impish divs’ (monsters) mission is to make Yalda night, the winter solstice, “as dark and cold as can be.” Knowing humans always ruin the night with their “silly celebrations,” the divs infiltrate a gathering and try to disrupt the Persian solstice traditions (eating watermelon for sweetness, reading poetry for good fortune), but the people always make do. Merabian’s (The Monster in the Bathhouse, rev. 3/22) text, with its shoutable refrain (“STOMP, STEAL, and RIP APART!”), builds to an apt message, reflected in the light-infused digital illustrations: that even when the night is cold or things get lost or broken, “you can make your bright, warm, happy moments.”

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.