Summer Moonlight Concert Musical Picture Book
Note: Thank you to Sugar Mountain PR for providing a copy to review. All opinions are my own.
What does a family do when the power goes out? In the musical picture book, Summer Moonlight Concert written and illustrated by Han Han, Xiaomi and her parents do not dwell in the darkness in despair. Instead, the young Chinese girl and her family make the best of the situation.
On the hot summer evening of the power outage, her father suggests they take out their musical instruments, leave their apartment building, and go into the bright moonlit yard. Xiaomi dances as her father plays the erhu and her mother the accordion.
Upon hearing the beautiful music, neighbors stop what they’re doing and descend to listen to the outdoor concert. Together, they create a community of laughter, dancing, and singing until the power is restored.
The story was originally written in Chinese and then translated into English for this musical picture book. The 40-page illustrated hardcover book comes with a 12-minute CD featuring the narrated story and theme song. It also includes an exclusive MP3 download code and a printable file of the illustrated story.
The soft, colorful illustrations reflect the uplifting tone of the story and the soothing notes of the theme song. The elegant song, Liu Tianhua which translates to Beautiful Evening, features a lovely melody where the instrument calls out as if singing to its listeners. It is sure to create feelings of calmness in little ears.
The Inspiration Behind the Story
The author, Han Han, revealed to Bicultural Mama what inspired her to write Summer Moonlight Concert.
She states, “In early 2013, my husband and I moved into a new home outside 5th Ring Road in Beijing. In April, the clivia plant we had kept for several years suddenly bloomed, and along with it came the surprise that I was pregnant. Summer Moonlight Concert came into my 30-year-old life alongside my oldest son, Shell. When the clivia bloomed I wrote Summer Moonlight Concert in one go, with a deep fondness for my childhood.
When I was a child, I moved several times with my parents. But for a long time, the scene of my home in my dreams was always a dormitory building, located on the elementary school campus where my mother worked. I spent 12 wonderful and happy years here, from the time I moved in at the age of six in the second grade to the time I left for college at the age of 17.
There was never a shortage of playing and singing in our house, and my dad used to organize various ball games in the playground for the teachers. Everyone shared the good food cooked by the families, and the children played house and hide and seek in every corner of the campus.
I miss those days of playing with friends and being surrounded by neighbours who were like family. My childhood is as long as the dinosaur era in my heart, and the small-town life radiating from this campus was my whole world.”
Where to Find Summer Moonlight Concert
Summer Moonlight Concert is ideal for readers ages 5 to 7. It is part of The Secret Mountain’s new classical music series. All the books in the series include an audio CD and a unique code to download the recordings.
To learn more about Summer Moonlight Concert, check out this fun Instagram slide show from Secret Mountain Publishing. Find Summer Moonlight Concert on Amazon and at other booksellers.
Enter the Summer Moonlight Concert Musical Picture Book Giveaway [CLOSED]
One lucky reader will win a copy of the Summer Moonlight Concert musical picture book. Please enter via the entry form below. The giveaway is open to entrants aged 18+ years old with a U.S. mailing address. Good luck!
About the Author
Han Han is a graduate of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. She has illustrated several popular children’s books in China including Peng Yi’s “The Monster Daddy” and Yin Jianling’s “Dragonfly, Dragonfly.” She received the prestigious Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Award in 2015 for the original version of “Summer Moonshine Concert.”