A Kite for Moon Read online

  PRESENTED TO

  WITH LOVE FROM

  DATE

  ZONDERKIDZ

  A Kite for Moon

  Copyright © 2019 by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple

  Illustrations © 2019 by Matt Phelan

  This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Zonderkidz, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

  ISBN 978-0-310-75642-2

  Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

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  Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.

  Art direction: Ron Huizinga

  Printed in China

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  For Neil Armstrong,

  who showed us the way.

  It was morning and Moon sat alone in the sky.

  The stars were all abed.

  No one below was singing to her.

  No one was sending up rockets

  or writing poems about her.

  No one was taking her photograph

  or painting her picture.

  Moon began to feel terribly sorry for herself.

  Down below, a very small boy

  flying his kite on the beach near his house,

  looked up at Moon.

  “Moon!” he called up to her. “Don’t be sad!”

  He ran as far as he could,

  all the way to the edge of the water

  where Moon sat on the horizon.

  He tried to hug Moon

  as his mother did to him

  whenever he was unhappy.

  But Moon was too far away.

  So he wrote on his kite,

  promising to come some day for a visit.

  Then he let go

  of his kite,

  sending it up, up, up for Moon.

  Days went by, years.

  Moon waxed and waned.

  She counted shooting stars and meteors.

  She worried about peace down on earth

  and strange objects whizzing by.

  She eclipsed.

  Many nights the boy watched Moon through a telescope

  his father had given him.

  Many days he sent up a new kite for Moon:

  red kites, blue kites, green kites, yellow.

  Some fell back to Earth,

  some disappeared into the sky.

  And Moon watched the boy grow.

  Every day the boy studied hard.

  He learned his large numbers

  and his small sums.

  He learned algebra and equations.

  He learned geometry

  and tried to square the circle.

  He learned all about the sky

  and the moon.

  He learned to ride a bicycle, drive a car, fly a plane and a rocket.

  Then one day, when

  he had learned

  enough,

  he went up, up, up

  in a big rocket ship

  with a fiery tail.

  “Hello, Moon,” he said. “I’ve come for that visit.”

  And the whole world watched.

 

 

  Jane Yolen, A Kite for Moon

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