Crab Moon
Ages 6-9
Illustrated by Kate Kiesler
Candlewick Press (2000)
Available in hardcover, paperback and e-book
Under the sandy shuffle of the surf, he could hear the clack of the crabs’ shielded backs bumping and scraping together.
One June night, under the full moon, Daniel’s mother wakes him up to see the extraordinary sight of horseshoe crabs spawning on the beach, just as they have every spring for an awesome 350 million years. But when Daniel returns in the morning, he finds one lonely crab, marooned upside down in the sand. Can he possibly save it? Crab Moon evokes a special adventure between parent and child, and conveys a quiet message about doing our part to preserve even earth’s oldest creatures. Back matter includes a note about horseshoe crabs.
Reviews
“Precise, lyrical language tells the story: the crabs sounding like restless cobblestones’; black seaweed on the sand looking like streamers left over from a party.”
—Booklist
“…conveys a respectful attitude toward sea- and shore-dwelling wildlife in an unpreachy way.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Horowitz’s poetic descriptions are buried throughout the text as smooth as sea glass.”—Publisher’s Weekly
“The full moon in June brings the high tide of the horseshoe crabs, Daniel’s mother tells him in this atmospheric evocation of a boy’s seashore encounter with creatures older than dinosaurs. In Ms. Kiesler’s inviting pictures, you can virtually smell the salt air.”
—New York Times
“Horowitz’s quiet text reflects the moonlit awe of this ageless pattern, and Kiesler’s luminous oils capture freeze-frame moments in perfect step” —School Library Journal
Honors
- Listed in The New York Times as one of 10 Best Illustrated Books, 2000
- NCSS-CBC Notable Children’s Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies, 2001
- Included in Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, by Lynn Dorfman
The Story Behind the Story
My late Aunt Susan used to watch horseshoe crabs spawning on a beach on Long Island, and sometimes she flipped stranded crabs back onto their bellies, so they could return to the sea. Her emails describing the experience inspired Crab Moon.
When I wrote this story, I lived in Vermont, hundreds of miles from the ocean. The book’s illustrator, Kate Kiesler, lived in Colorado and New Mexico, even farther from the beach. To help Kate create her wonderful oil paintings, I mailed her a horseshoe crab shell, which I had received from Aunt Susan.
Little did I know that years after the book came out, I would move to Rhode Island, where I can now see horseshoe crabs spawning just a few steps from our home.
Even more amazing, years after I moved to Rhode Island, I found out that the students at my neighborhood elementary school had voted to designate the horseshoe crab as their school mascot. The class that campaigned for the change used Crab Moon to make their case, and didn’t realize until later that the book’s author lived a few blocks from their school.
In my book, Daniel flips a horseshoe crab by grabbing it by the tail – the same technique my Aunt Susan used, and the method that was approved by a horseshoe crab expert at the New England Aquarium. Scientists have since realized that this can damage the tail. They now recommend lifting horseshoe crabs by grabbing hold of both sides of the shell. I am grateful to Candlewick Press for including this important correction in later editions of the book.