Moonflower and the Solstice Dance is an illustrated children's book that takes readers on a journey to the steppes of Central Asia, where Moonflower, a young girl from a Turkic tribe, witnesses the changing of the seasons and wonders why warm, long, bright summer days fade away and nearly disappear into a cold, dark winter. The people of her village come together on the Winter Solstice to give the sun the courage it needs to beat back the darkness and rule the sky again. The story is told in rhyming verse, which creates a chant-like rhythm, and flows through the cycle of seasons,...