Shine: Why Don't Moon Fairy and Sun Prince Live Together?: A story of unconditional love for the children of separated or divorced parents

Having been a child of divorce, I thought I’d flip through this and see how it’d help other children who went through similar situations. I accepted my family’s explanation of how my father moved away from my mother just because he wanted to live somewhere else, but I was more worried about my father being thousands of miles away and the terrible feeling I had as a result. Kids can be fine (i.e., not blame it on themselves) if the parents are both caring and show interest in the child, so books like this can make that situation easier. (Side note: I hope they have books or make more books for kids on when a parent basically abandons them, though—that is more harmful to a child’s self-worth)This is a nice story of how two individuals fall in love and have a child only to encounter difficulties that require separate living to find themselves again and have a happy life as a family where the parents live separately. It’s a good story on the topic, with only a couple of notes for parents to check before using it for their child. Your purchase of this book will mainly be based on how old your child is upon the divorce and how liberal/conservative your parenting style is with regards to certain topics (see below for specifics).What I Liked:-The illustrations are beautiful. Very vivid colors.-The story about how the Sun Prince and Moon Fairy were losing their shine/glow and struggling together was as good of a metaphor as you’re going to get in a divorce situation. While children are ego-centric as the PhD says at the beginning of the book, they do have empathy and can understand if the living situation is causing strife and a different one would improve the parents’ well-being. I think that’s shown well here. I think a child would empathize with the depressed Moon Fairy in bed.-The star going from the Sun Prince to the Moon Fairy at the end was a wonderful analogy/metaphor. The fact that a child can live happily and benefit from the separate relationship was a very powerful one. Most people set out to make the child feel less bad without talking about the benefits where there are some.Nitpicks:-For what I thought was going to be a children’s illustrated book, there was a lot of upfront materials made for the parents. Maybe hide that in the back (like test answers in a textbook)?-The “hiding the clothes” page I think would be amusing for younger kids and cuing naughty laughter from older kids, but I could see some people being a little taken aback by that. I think young kids would just say, “Yes, you can’t leave without your clothes!” Also, it mentions “swim in the ocean, carefree and nude”—that part I can see being a little off putting to parents since I’m not sure whether they would want their kids to think skinny dipping is common. It didn’t bother me, but just making this note for more conservative parents.-The star analogy was good but then made me think, “But wait, the Moon Fairy was counting stars earlier! What is she doing counting children?!?!” (Kidding)-Even as an adult, I couldn’t really understand the metaphors going on when the Sun Prince and Moon Fairy were struggling. Clearly, the mother was becoming depressed, and the father was down as well and tried hard to keep it together. The “cast his own light upon her in the evening” part doesn’t make sense to me. What does this translate to in real life, and why did this effort on the part of the Prince lead to them being even more lost??? I’m not really good at understanding metaphors/parables, so it’s no knock on the author. Plus, it seems like this divorce was simply one of compatibility issues, so it’s very different from the one I experienced.-The “twinkling brighter and brighter by the day” language was positioned where at first I thought they were crediting the divorce with improving the child’s attitude, and then I realized that the author meant that the star was growing and thriving as a person after the divorce (i.e., not necessarily because of it). It could’ve been slightly reworded to divide the two thoughts so it was more clear that the child can/will still grow and thrive after this event vs. that the event made the star better (the only reason being that, if taken that way, I think that’s probably an oversell and the child might not buy it—not sure, though, as I can only say that I was surprised).Other Thoughts/Notes:-I disagree with the PhD at the beginning about not treating your child like a mini-adult; I preferred when people told me the truth and explained it to me in adult language—I did not like the dumbed-down explanations or the ongoing reassurance that it’s not my fault that the doctor prescribes (e.g., I remember thinking when people kept saying, “It’s not my fault,” “Of course its not my fault. My dad left because he wanted to be with this other person and live in another place. Why do you keep saying that?”). However, I had/have symptoms of being on the autism spectrum and scored high on intelligence tests as a kid, so maybe the advice varies based on that. Not that I’m sure that anything does work for my issue (it took decades for me to recover my sense of self-worth from being abandoned) and the doctor may not have been giving this advice based on when the divorce is accompanied by one parent departing and not seeing his kids for 18 months, but I didn’t see anything in there that wasn’t done for me/would have worked.

When I was growing up, we had a book about divorce. I don’t remember the title. I remember feeling very sad. The girl in the book cried under a weeping willow at the end.I guess she thought her parents were getting back together and the book was about the fact that they weren’t. I’m 38. I don’t remember having that book after my mom got remarried and I was 8 then. All these years and I can still see her crying under the weeping willow and I feel sad for her.I have no memory of my parents being married or there being any wondering if they would get remarried. My father didn’t wait long to remarry so I have no memory of a time when I could have wondered.The “why” of it varied between parents. Mom was pretty kind about it with “we just didn’t belong together” type answers until we were old enough to either understand the truth or repeat what our father said. I think it’s worth mentioning that the book to help us deal with the topic was at my mother’s house.Despite not really being aware that my parents ever lived together, and thus were living apart, I read and reread that book as a kid. I think it was a lack of blame and focus on the fact that the daughter was still loved that I wanted so badly. It’s the one thing kids need to know. It’s the one thing only kid’s book authors understand kids need to know.What is special about this book is that it doesn’t dismiss the good times. For so much of my life I felt like a chess piece and wondered why in the actual heck my parents ever got married and had me.As an adult and having asked the question I know it was nothing magical but I was wanted. I don’t know that this book should be a “kids book” only. I don’t know that you can outgrow it.

What a lovely story for children going through a divorce or separation! The illustrations are so beautiful, and the story is highly imaginative with a satisfying ending. The book tackles the idea of separation in a way that makes it easy for kids to understand that their changing family doesn't mean Mom and Dad love them any less. The only small drawback of the book is that this edition does not use standard US punctuation -- specifically quotation marks " " when someone is speaking versus the double angle brackets << >> used in the book. For me, this wasn't a drawback that was big enough to give fewer stars because I really found the book to be delightful. I only mention it because kids learn to write by reading. Overall, a lovely and helpful book for kids going through a rough time.

I returned this book because it wasn't appropriate for my child who is having a hard time understanding relationships. They are 5 and immature socially. However had they been older this story would have e been beautiful and so well executed. It's so sweet and explains the wholeness of parents and how they just love each other one moment but later don't and the two characters take the love and focus it on the kiddo.

I was enthralled by more than the delicate way this author handled the story of a family's separation, the artwork is also amazing. I suggest preteens for this little tale, but for those slightly older and fragile not understanding the metaphor, I can see the abrupt ending being very useful to open up questions.

This book is a good resource for families of young children going through separation. The beginning of the book has good insights for parents to read that will help them gently explain what is going on to their children. There is great emphasis on letting children know the split is not their fault. This part alone is worth knowing for parents of any age child. The illustrated fantasy-story that comes later would be soothing for young children but might not hold the interest of those over 8 or 10. If your family is going through a split, you should get this book.

My son absolutely loved this book. It was hard getting asked about my ex wife every day but after reading it together a few times this book really did the trick. The pictures are beautiful and the story is written in a way that children can easily comprehend separation. Highly recommend to any single parents.

Its a lovely story except for the part where the prince gets her attention by stealing her clothing while she bathes nude. Its a bit creepy and inappropriate for children