The Girl Who Spoke to the Moon
A scary children’s book about sibling relationships, made in collaboration with the artist and curator Lua: Ayla wishes to become the sister she envies, and the darkness inside her grows into a shadow creature.
The story
The book follows Ayla through one night: wishing to become the sister she has always envied, she lets the darkness inside her grow until it bursts out as a shadow creature.
Whether in an Asian household or an American one, the feelings that hold a family together often go beyond words. We wanted a story that respects children’s emotional intelligence: one that goes into the darker corners of imagination and shows how empathy and creativity can light the way through them.
Type that moves
I’m drawn to children’s publishing as the place where visual communication and storytelling meet. Here the letters act out the story: they GROW BIGGER and BIGGER as Ayla’s jealousy takes over, SHAKE with the room and SCRAMBLE up the stairs. I want type that carries the same spirit of adventure children bring to reading: welcoming, unexpected and alive.
Two practices
Lua works in mixed media, building worlds from paint, collage and drawing that feel both tender and eerie. They set the atmosphere: tactile, moody and full of small details that reward close looking. The collaboration lives on that difference, digital precision meeting tactile expression, structured design meeting emotional spontaneity.
Next
We made this three-spread sequence to apply to Publisher Speed Dating, to meet publishers and agents and learn how a story like ours could become a printed book.
We want to make books that invite children, especially girls, to see imagination as strength, fear as a doorway, and sisterhood as a form of magic.
Seewing Chun and Lua
