Millie Fleur Saves the Night
Author/Illustrator: Christy Mandin
Pages: 40
Buy on Bookshop.org
Book Description:
Garden Glen was afraid of the dark.
Each night when the sun went down, all the lights in town turned on. The houses shone like the noon sun. Every house except for Millie Fleur La Fae’s, of course.
Millie Fleur knows there are enchanting things that can only be glimpsed in the dark. But ever since she moved to Garden Glen, her nighttime friends are nowhere to be found.
Determined to welcome the dark back to town, Millie Fleur bakes delicious moon pies and plants a sweet-smelling moon garden. But before the nighttime creatures will return, Millie Fleur must convince the townspeople to be brave and turn out the lights.
Review:
If you want the visuals of a spooky story, without any spookiness involved, this is a great pick for the Halloween season. Millie just wants to have a night garden, but there are too many lights in her town, and the neighbors want her to light up her yard, too.
Instead, she is able to bring kids into the night garden so they can enjoy all the night blooming flowers and stars and other wonders of the dark.
I really appreciated this creative twist on an idea of preserving darkness at night. This is an important idea that I would love more people to try implementing. When traveling to “Dark Skies” places in the USA, it’s amazing to see how different nighttime looks when there is really darkness. Animals and plants do need darkness, and human light pollution is harming them, but this book keeps this important theme light-hearted and fun.
