The Moon Is a Ball

Join Panda and Squirrel in nine funny, wise and thoughtful stories about the meaning of friendship by two world greats of children’s literature. Perfect for emerging readers.

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. Sometimes they argue but they always make up again. This is a friendship for any day: roaring, quiet, grumbling, snoring...always.

This beautiful hardback storybook, with full-color illustrations throughout, features down-to-earth and warm-hearted friendship stories that reach straight from the soul of one six-year-old to another. Perfect for emerging readers or for reading aloud together, it's a book to read again and again.

Written by Ed Franck, one of Belgium's most important and innovative children's writers, and illustrated by Thé Tjong-Khing, a world-leading illustrator for children, whose many accolades include nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Translated from the Dutch edition by David Colmer.

Praise for The Moon is a Ball

". . . [C]aptivating text, ideal for reading aloud. . ."―The New York Times

"As Franck models charming rapport and low-stakes companionship, Tjong-Khing's delicate artwork provides nature-filled scenes of glorious suns and a bamboo forest.”―Publishers Weekly

"Full of heart and gentle humor, Panda and Squirrel are sure to please." ―Booklist

"Striking artwork and sweet, funny stories about friendship make The Moon Is a Ball an amusing addition to the philosophical friends genre, alongside Winnie-the-Pooh and Frog and Toad Are Friends.”―Shelf Awareness

"Families who love short, illustrated fiction featuring animals, such as The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham or Ulf Nilsson's Detective Gordon series."―Youth Services Book Review

"Enjoyable.”―Kirkus Reviews

"[An] upbeat, curiosity-inducing early reader."―Foreword Reviews

Ed Franck is one of Belgium's most important and innovative children's writers. He writes for all ages and in all genres: from songs for toddlers to YA novels, detective stories, and poetry. He has twice won the prestigious Cultuurprijs of the Flemish Community for Youth Literature.

Thé Tjong-Khing is a children's book illustrator based in the Netherlands. He was born in Indonesia, attended the Seni Rupa Arts Institute in Bandung, and moved to the Netherlands in 1956. As a child he was interested in the "Tarzan" comic strips of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Thé has won the Golden Pencil Award three times (a major Dutch children's book award), and in 2005 the Woutertje Pieterse Prize for Best Dutch Children's Book for his book Waar is de taart? (Where Is the Cake?), a wordless picture book which was also nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize in 2007.