P.1 of Rhiannon's Version of Blow Out the Moon

A NOTE FROM LIBBY: This is Rhiannon's cover.

Many children have written to me asking why the book is called Blow Out the Moon. It comes from this poem:

Temper

“Blow out the light,” they said, they said,
(She’d got to the very last page);
“Blow out the light,” they said, they said,
“It’s dreadfully wicked to read in bed!’’
Her eyes grew black and her face got red
And she blew in a terrible rage.

She put out the moon, she did, she did,
So frightfully hard she blew,
She put out the moon, she did, she did...

— Rose Fyleman

In the poem, the girl is made to blow out the lamp. Lamps then burned gas or kerosene and to put them out, you blew them. In the poem, she blows so hard that she blows out the moon -- her feelings are so strong and so powerful that she has the power to put out the moon. My title is encouraging kids to do that -- to have those strong feelings and
the energy and power that goes with them (many people lose this as they grow older). It doesn't say someone DID blow out the moon; it's saying to do it, go for it -- blow out the moon!

The poem “Temper,” by Rose Fyleman, appeared in The Fairy Flute, copyright © 1923, Doubleday & Company, Inc. Used with permission.

THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL

You can get the book that started it all, Blow Out the Moon,
in libraries, bookstores, and online at amazon.

(In case you got here from another site: Blow Out the Moon is a novel about an American girl who goes to boarding school in England. You can read parts of it online.

Read Chapter One of Blow Out the Moon

It is a published book because so many people read it online and wrote to me about it! The paperback is coming out in May -- which cover do you like better?

You can also get it at your library, a bookstore, or order it from barnesandnoble, amazon. If your bookstore or library doesn't have it, they can order it for you.

--Libby (the author)
Email: Libby.Koponen@gmail.com

Go back to the list of chapters from Blow Out the Moon and stories