• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: p to 3

A girl who doesn't fit in befriends a blind horse who also struggles to find his place in the herd. A beautiful picture book that helps readers celebrate the qualities that challenge us and make us different.

Moon cannot see but he hears sounds that other horses ignore: the eggshell crack of a meadow lark hatching. The glide of a salamander into the pond. Clara does not speak but she hears sounds that other children ignore: the hum of the oven when her mother bakes muffins. The sound of the cat's paws on the kitchen floor.

Both the foal and the little girl live with challenges. Both also have special qualities, which are recognized by friends who are open to seeing them. Midnight and Moon is about the rare and wonderful friendship that can form between opposites, a friendship that enriches both. This story shows us that our differences are positives, that the world needs both Claras and Jacks, Midnights and Moons.

Kelly Cooper grew up in the tiny farming community of Senlac, Saskatchewan, where she vaccinated, branded, and ear-tagged cattle, sorted calves on foot and on horseback, drove cattle to pasture on horseback, and drove a tractor and a three-ton truck. A graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, Cooper taught high school English and later moved to Belleisle Creek, New Brunswick, with her husband, where until recently, she worked as an art teacher. The only girl among siblings and cousins, she routinely did "men's work," and now works with her husband on their dairy farm. Cooper's stories have been published the Fiddlehead, Room of One's Own, Descant, Grain, Prairie Fire, the Malahat Review, and the Windsor Review. They have been featured in anthologies such as Coming Attractions '02, Water Studies, and Home for Christmas. "River Judith" won the Fiddlehead Fiction Prize, and an early version of Eyehill won the prestigious David Adams Literary Award. Eyehill is her long-awaited first book.

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One of CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2022), Starred Selection

“The story’s gentle drama and quiet heroics of two characters with disabilities makes this a wonderful read that also affirms being introverted, nonverbal, or shy.” —STARRED REVIEW, Booklist
“Midnight and Moon is a beautiful, soft story. . . . [It] would make a lovely addition to any children’s library.” —CM: Canadian Review of Materials
"This sensitive picture book . . . imagines the links among people and between humans and animals as a continuum of words, sounds, gestures and intuitionabout one another." —Imaginary Elevators

"A poignant story of disability that mingles special qualities 'by friends who are open to seeing them.'" —Story Monsters Ink