Majid Damircheli, iIlustrated by Wendy Siemens,
Lonely Luna
Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing, 2010.

Rating: G*

Author Majid Damircheli, originally from Tehran, has experienced firsthand what it is like to move to a new country. This story will strike the hearts of new Canadians who are adapting to an unfamiliar winter climate, learning a new language and trying to make friends.

Luna, a young girl, looks out her window with her mother and wishes for a friend in the snow. After many lonely days and nights of sharing her pain with the moon and the sun, she finally begins to make some friends. She and a group of classmates have fun in the snow together.

The subject of this book ties in with curricular studies of changes within families as well as school communities. This book could be used for a discussion about welcoming and including new students in a classroom, particularly those who don’t speak English well. It highlights the feelings of the newcomer:

"Soon Luna started school.

It was very hard – she couldn’t understand anything at all…….

Learning a new language was very hard, but what was worse was not being able to tell the other children how she felt.

Luna’s heart was full of love for other people and she wanted a friend."

This story would work well as a teacher readaloud. The full colour illustrations portray many different ethnic backgrounds.

Lori Austin
Vol. 16, number 4
April 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.