A Home for Luna

A Home for Luna has won the Children's Category of the International Rubery Book Awards. The Rubery Prize is a prestigious international book award seeking the best books by indie writers, self-published authors and books published by independent presses, judged by reputable judges.

https://www.ruberybookaward.com/ 

A Home for Luna - written by Stef Gemmill, illustrated by Mel Armstrong, published by New Frontier Publishing

This is everything a picture-book should be. The story is lovely – Luna, a black and white cat, is far from home, washed ashore in a remote place where eventually she’s befriended by a colony of penguins, including Tiny and Yellow-Eye. When a man passing by in a boat attempts to rescue her, Luna doesn’t want to leave, and she and her new friends join forces to drive him away. The illustrations are delightful, particularly the final picture where Luna is nestled at the feet of Tiny and Yellow-Eye like a penguin chick.
The story has universal themes that even young children will be able to recognise. The idea of ‘home’ and feeling safe and having friends are all simple concepts for children to understand, because they’re central to their own lives. For this very reason, however, they do feature a great deal in picture-books, and it takes no little skill to come up with something as original and appealing as this story.  

A Home for Luna

A Home for Luna by Stef Gemmill, illustrated by Mel Armstrong (New Frontier) HB RRP $24.99 ISBN 9781925594843

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

Luna is a black and white cat who washes up on a strange shore, having arrived in a wooden box one moonlit night. She dreams of the seaside home she had long ago but is alone until she meets a flock of penguins which are gobbling sardines. She is hungry but has no food until a tiny bird kindly feeds her a shellfish. From then on Luna catches fish with her new friends. When a boat arrives and Luna is grabbed by a fisherman, the penguins protect her while she hisses and manages to break free. Finally, the lonely cat has found a happy new home.

This is a sweet and simple story about friendship with birds adopting a lost cat. It is appropriately illustrated in sea green and blue colours in contrast to the white and orange of the penguins. The illustrator uses an interesting technique of white on black and black on white for the sea rushing onto the shore on the fly pages. Something children will have fun with is finding a tiny crab in a shell that appears on most pages. This book will be enjoyed by children aged 4 to 7 years.