★Rights sold: Romania
★A tender, poetic tale, made with the ingredients of dreams and talking about friendship, loneliness, selfishness and love, trust and uniqueness, by the award-winning creators Maria Papayanni and Effie Lada. Because life is beautiful and vibrant with colour when we share it with others.
★English translation available.

High up in the sky, in a neighbourhood above the Earth, lives the Moonling child. Growing up, he thinks he’s better than everybody else, that he needs no one to survive. One day he meets
a sunray which impresses him and together they set out on a journey. She looks strong, fast, different. But the sunray reminds him of himself: she has need for absolutely nobody, which she tells him clearly, and so the Moonling is left alone in an unfamiliar place. Then a firefly approaches him, who can feel the Moonling’s sadness.

He admits to her that he has lost his way and together they try to return him home. During their journey back, the Moonling comes to understand how important friends are in life. He discovers how much strength, courage and optimism they offer right when he needs it. As they arrive at the place where the sea becomes one with the sky and the Moonling prepares to dive into the water to return home, he calls out to the firefly the lesson he’s learned: ‘Friends come in pairs! There’s got to be at least two, always!’

Maria Papayanni (Author)
She studied Greek Language and Literature and worked as a journalist in radio, television, newspapers, and magazines.
Her first book was published in 2001. Ever since she has devoted herself to writing stories, fairy tales, and novels. She loves magical, traditional tales and narrates them to children when she visits schools. She also loves theatre and has penned librettos and verses for musical theatre. Her first book, "Goodnight, Mama," was published in 2001, the same year her second child was born. Her books have enjoyed great success with children and have won numerous awards in Greece, including:
· In 2002, she co-authored "Catch them!" with Philippos Mandilaras, which won the Merit Award by the Greek section of IBBY.
· "As If By Magic" won Greek IBBY Award and the Diavazo Literary Magazine Award
· "The Lonesome Tree" won the State Prize and the Diavazo Literary Magazine Award.
"You Will Win Another Day" has been translated into multiple languages.
· She was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2020 and 2022.

After all, she believes that books have wings:
“Children know well that when the sentence Once upon a time is uttered the door opens to the place where anything may happen. And children need the world of imagination in order to understand everyday life and its difficulties.”

In her own words:
I was born in Larissa, under Mount Olympus, where the 12 gods of antiquity lived.
I grew up in a large family where everyone had the gift of telling stories. Not fairy tales, but everyday life stories, which were told over huge tables in the summer; stories would add taste in our life, the way salt and pepper add flavour to our food. I recall tears alternating with laughter. These stories seemed to me like miracles, because they could release great powers. I don’t mean to say that everyone in my family was a bit of a liar, but exaggeration was something common. That’s how I came to believe that in the quiet, provincial town where I was growing up anything could happen. Growing up, instead of confessing to myself that my family used to exaggerate, I chose to believe that we were ‘special’ and ‘unique’. And I also decided that this was the only way I could tolerate reality and put up with everyday difficulties. By making up stories…
With stories, I have always had a season ticket in my pocket which allowed me to freely come and go between everyday life and the land where… anything may happen.

Effie Lada (Illustrator)
Born in a small village on the western coast of the Peloponnese in Greece, she has published over 130 books. Her works have been translated into Italian, French, English, Flemish, Korean, Romanian, Turkish, Croatian, Russian, and Chinese.
Effie has participated in many international competitions and illustration exhibitions, including:
•Selection for the Bologna Children's Book Fair in 2004
•Nomination for the National Illustration Award in 2006 for "Sunday in the Park"
•Winner of the IBBY Greek Illustration Award for "Star Rain" in 2009, and nomination for the National Illustration Award
•Nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2010 and 2011
•Selection for the Bratislava/Slovakia Illustrator's Biennial in 2011 and 2015
•Nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012
•Winner of the Black Raven Award for "The King Who Had Too Much of Everything" in 2016
•Silver Medal at the Key Colors Illustrator's Award in 2018 for "The Forgotten Sunday"
•Nomination for the Greek National Illustration in 2021
•Selection for the Golden ELNIPLEX list in 2023
•Nomination for the Greek section of IBBY in 2023
•Praise from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Foreword Reviews, and Amazon, with Amazon listing it as one of the best books for 6-8 year old children in the US in 2023.