The Mooncatcher’s Rescue by Karen Lamb

For many readers, the first lines can hook them into the story.  Debut author, Karen Lamb shares a snippet of the first lines in The Mooncatcher’s Rescue, as well as her inspirations behind writing it.

Sometimes, all it takes for a big dream to happen is something small.

These are amongst the first lines of my debut book The Mooncatcher’s Rescue, and the inspiration for it began with something small. Something of the four-legged kind.

While on a camping trip I had several encounters with an old short-sighted badger. He was known locally as Victor and could often be seen snuffling around at dusk and dawn. I usually saw him at a distance in the evenings, lumbering down a grass-trodden path then changing direction when he noticed a human in the way. One morning I had an unexpected close encounter. I was standing by a pond, enjoying the stillness, when the badger emerged purposefully out of the rushes. He looked me up and down with a slight air of disapproval, then calmly trotted on his way again – his belly wobbling with every step.

From this meeting, which felt magical and meaningful, I began to imagine a ghost that took care of the badger and wondered about the conversations they might have. My story grew from there. I’ve changed Victor’s name, however, because I turned him into a toy badger, and he might want to have a few words about that!

As I developed the characters further, I thought of a boy called River swirling his net in the village pond on moonlit evenings – a mooncatcher. When River accidentally wakes Mona, whose bones rest below the water, he must find Mona’s lost treasure before the ghost of the pirate Dashbuckle gets there first.

Growing up, the books I was drawn to at my local library were poetry and stories that made me laugh and cry; something I’ve tried to incorporate into my own writing. When I saw my own poems in print on the pages of the library’s magazine for children, my ambition to become an author one day was sparked.

There were other influences. As a child I often appeared in pantomimes with other singing and dancing kids identically dressed in itchy, sequined fabric. This too gave me a love for magic and storytelling but no love of puffed sleeves and pointy hats. (Although in one performance a pointy hat was a good place to hide crisps.) I was fascinated by the creation of exciting and mysterious experiences that could take you to different places in the imagination.

The Mooncatcher’s Rescue eventually became an adventure with ghosts, pirates and a talking badger. Bossy ducks, unruly frogs and a strange collection of other pondlife live in the weird and magical village of Bigdeepby. On River’s journey to help a ghost search for her treasure he finds friendship along the way. I hope the main themes of the book – being a little different, friendship, loss and longing – will inspire kids to think about their own experiences and perhaps talk about them a bit more.

I often think back to the summer’s day when, out of the calmness of the countryside came a wild and wonderful creature emerging from the rushes. Thanks to that small badger a story emerged which made a big dream come true for the little girl in the library.

The Mooncatcher’s Rescue is written by Karen Lamb and published by Walker Books.

Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.