The Dog Who Followed the Moon
In James Norbury’s book The Dog Who Followed the Moon, a young pup meets an old wolf who goes on a journey with her to find her parents, in a gripping story about love and loss. Measuring the passage of time through different parts of the day, Norbury captures the ebbs and flows of life beautifully from Dawn to Midnight, with accompanying illustrations and simple wisdoms that are sometimes hard to hear but are valuable lessons all the same.
Some of my favorite illustrations are the winter ones at the beginning of the book, depicting nature in all its rich cool tones. The lonely pup, Amaya, is alone and searching, and this is a great parallel between life’s seasons and human trials of loneliness and darkness in the season of sleep and even death. The old wolf, once a powerful leader of his pack, acts as a symbol for these trials as well, with his scars and his fierce nature, a creature who has seen its fair share of hardship. He is moved to do the right thing, though it is not the obvious thing.
The idea of following the moon to your heart’s desire is a beautiful one. It serves as a beacon of hope for Amaya on her journey to find what she is missing. It is also a bittersweet juxtaposition seeing the pup full of life and purpose paralleled against the old wolf’s dwindling life and his struggle for meaning at life’s end.
Norbury paints the picture of the imperfect path to one’s desires beautifully as the pup and wolf go on their journey and are forced to change their course as they find their way around constant obstacles:
“The path ahead is perhaps the most difficult one I will ever travel. But I will embrace it, I will devote myself fully to it, and I will welcome every trial that it brings, for I know it is what I need to take me where I need to be” (Norbury, 35).
The ebb and flow of hope and despair is depicted on the pup and wolf’s journey throughout the story. Just as something goes right, another goes wrong, but with these trials another chance to value patience and savor the experiences along the way always presents itself, whether it’s in the light of a brand new day or beneath the stars of a moonlit night.
The importance of sharing the burdens of the journey and having hope in the bleakest of times is prevalent throughout the book as well, and when the bittersweet climax does come, it’s heartbreaking and uplifting all at once. Norbury’s deep wisdom shines through once more as the world falls into a cold winter’s night and the pup learns another hard lesson that almost moved me to tears.
Norbury’s use of the simple but moving journey narrative combined with colorful illustrations always does its job of teaching us lessons that are hard to accept, but are all the more worthwhile for our troubles if we embrace them. I always smile and my heart swells with joy, love and bittersweet emotions every time I read this book. The afterword and final words left me pondering on lots of things, things that give me hope to carry on in my own dark times, as well as how I can learn to embrace my life journey a little bit more.
Reference
Norbury, James. The Dog Who Followed the Moon. William Morrow, 2024.