Name That Book: Children's Scary Story about Moon

Hi everyone--

I posted this to several book-finding sites, to no avail so far. (Indeed, one of those sites closed down quickly after I posted!) I hope that you all may be able to help. I'd really appreciate it.

I'm looking for a scary children's story I read maybe about 10 years ago. I can only remembering the most oblique facts about the plot, but here goes:

The sister of the narrator (and/or viewpoint character), a young boy, has just died, but the narrator knows that, in fact, the Moon (yes, the Moon) came in and killed her. The boy goes to look for her but is terrified of the moonlight streaming in through the window. There's a scene about the Moon laughing, or something like that. There's also a scene in which the Moon's rays are compared to a knife, and a description of blood. (Yes, I know how vague all those comments are.) It terrified me when I was young--it had something of the feel of an evil fairy tale, if that makes any sense.

It is not Patricia Windsor's "Moon Kill," though that is similar.

Thank you all!

Nalkarj

FOUND (5/18/17): "Drawing the Moon" by Janni Lee Simner from Bruce Coville's Book of Nightmares.

Wow, I can see how those scenes would stick in your memory. I have some follow-up questions to try to extract more details from you:

Do you remember what age or school grade this story was focused for?

Was this story illustrated?

Do you recall reading this in an anthology or story collection? Or was it published by itself?

Touchstone add:
Patricia Windsor's "Moon Kill" published in Night Terrors, Duncan.

I read At the Back of the North Wind about three decades ago, and I vaguely recall it's a story where death is involved. I think includes a trip to the moon at some point, but I don't remember it being anything that sinister, more whimsical.

Thanks so much for the reply, MyriadBooks. On several other forums, no one has even replied to my post!

As for your questions...

I'm not sure as to the age for which it was intended. Maybe 10-12, or something like that? My library always had children's books with stories that then and now would probably be considered too grown-up, or too scary, for children, so I can't even be sure about that.

There might have been one or two illustrations, maybe on the first page, but I don't think there was anything besides that. Speaking of illustrations, I found William Sleator's The Angry Moon in looking for "my" story, but that's also not it.

It was definitely a short story and also definitely in a short story collection.

My library has a search feature for books going all the way back to one's first library card there, and I tried searching there but couldn't find it. That may be because I didn't even check it out of the library but only read it there, of course.

Many, many thanks for the help, MyriadBooks!

Thanks for letting me know, Cecrow!

I know George MacDonald's work fairly well and, looking over At the Back of the North Wind, I don't think that's it. Thanks for the recommendation, though!

Bump?

>4 Nalkarj: Thanks much!

I'm not widely read in juvenile fiction, but maybe check out some of the anthologies curated by names like Bruce Coville, Martin H. Greenberg, and Isaac Asimov, see if a title rings a bell? Coville in particular is known for his publications for adolescent readers.

I was indeed thinking of a Coville anthology; in fact, I thought it might have been a story by Coville at first, but I've found nothing in going through his (admittedly massive) list of works. It may well be in one of his anthologies.

Thanks for the thought!

Moon moonlight inauthor:Bruce inauthor:coville
Google Books advanced search webpage
Restrict to Books, English

Try that. I rarely read anthologies.

I'll try that. Problem is, I don't know if it was written by Coville--though it doesn't seem like the sort of thing he'd write--or only in an anthology he edited. Would that alter things?

Moon rays knife blood

More keywords. Remove author if it isn't Coville. You're looking for words used together. Maybe use fiction in subject. Use a year range.

Thanks, Bookel.

I didn't get any results that referred to "my" story with the first keywords; I'll try with the second string.

Nalkarj

Just tried it, with "Bruce Coville" in the title bar (because all of those anthologies had "Bruce Coville's Book of...")--I only got the teacher's guide for Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, which is definitely not it.

Hmm, I was look at several Coville anthologies on Amazon and the several of the reviews for Bruce Coville's Book of Nightmares mention how much a story called "Drawing the Moon" by Janni Lee Simner scared them as children.

Summary from one review:
"And then there's this story. No summary can really do it justice, so we'll just spell it out here: A kid whose parents were murdered (yeah, we got pretty serious pretty fast here, didn't we?) becomes convinced that a mysterious entity living in the moon is in fact responsible for their fate--and that he can somehow bring them back.

I won't mince words, this is a beautiful story, and quite haunting in every sense of the word. It's been one of my favorite works of fiction ever since I was 12, and I stand by that today. Janni Lee Simner was/is an incredible writer, and I've got no quips to deliver or hairs to split. Top-quality kids lit, by any standard."

ETA : The story is available as a stand-alone on Kindle for $0.99.

Summary: "Andrew knew that the moon had stolen his parents away.

"He tried to explain to Elizabeth once, after the funeral, but she didn’t understand. Her face turned horribly pale, and she whispered, “They’re dead, Andrew. Don’t you know that?” And then, just in case he didn’t, she drew him a picture. She used her red pencils, and some of Andrew’s crayons, besides. She used rusty-red for the brick buildings, brownish-red for the mugger’s jacket, rosy-red for Mom’s torn sweater on the sidewalk. And bright red for Dad, where the knife had gone through his chest.

"Andrew tore the drawing up—not because looking at it sent icy shivers up his spine, though it did—but because she’d gotten the drawing all wrong. She’d left out the moon, large and round in the night sky, and that was the most important part."

Also available as a free podcast here.

Excellent detective work, Rarm--I think that's it! Actually, no, think is not the word; know is, because I definitely remember that first sentence. (I thought the sister was killed rather than the parents, but, with all that said, it fits.)

It amazes me how many people were as affected by this story as I was. Quite some writing on Miss Simner's part, I must say--and quite an extraordinary story for a children's anthology.

Many thanks to everyone here!

May I ask, how does one retitle the topic to let everyone know it was solved?

>17 Nalkarj: You can't at this point (there's a tiny window with the topic is created); but saying you found it or editing the first post to add the title was found works!

Got it, thanks!