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Merabian, Sina

Monsters in the Moonlight: A Yalda Night Adventure

40 pp. | Simon | December, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9781534496842 $19.99
(2) K-3 Two impish divs’ (monsters) mission is to make Yalda night, the ­winter solstice, “as dark and cold as can be.” Knowing humans always ruin the night with their “silly celebrations,” the divs infiltrate a gathering and try to disrupt the Persian solstice traditions (eating watermelon for sweetness, reading poetry for good fortune), but the people always make do. Merabian’s (The Monster in the Bathhouse, rev. 3/22) text, with its shoutable refrain (“STOMP, STEAL, and RIP APART!”), builds to an apt message, reflected in the light-infused digital illustrations: that even when the night is cold or things get lost or broken, “you can make your bright, warm, happy moments.”
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

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