The Librarian of the Moon

The message arrived in the library under the pond, written in tiny scratches on a piece of moon rock. This is Pip, a tiny dragon who can read ancient languages. Pip was the only one who could read it, and it said: "To whoever finds this, I have been waiting a very long time, please bring a book." This is Professor Bramble, a fox who is the librarian. Professor Bramble said a request for a book is the most important kind of request there is, so they packed three.

This story happens on the moon, on the far side that you can never see from Earth. This is Nimbus, a small cloud who wants to be a scientist. Nimbus floated them all the way up there. Professor Bramble sat on top of her holding his notebook, and Pip was in his teacup tucked into Professor Bramble's cardigan pocket.

At first they didn't find anyone, just an enormous crater with a little round door in the bottom of it. There were footprints in the moon dust that went around and around in a circle, like someone had been pacing for centuries. Then the door creaked open, and out came a very old, very small robot. It said in a crackly voice, "You came."

The robot said its name is Orbit, because it was built to go around the moon and count all the craters. But when it finished counting, there was nothing left to do, and it got so lonely. Nimbus wrote on her clipboard: "Observation, Orbit is not broken, Orbit is bored."

Professor Bramble gave Orbit a book about the ocean. But then there was a problem. Orbit's lantern started flickering and going dim. Orbit said quietly that its battery had been running down for centuries. Pip climbed out of the teacup and put his tiny paw on Orbit's wheel. "We will think of something," he said, "because that's what friends do."

Nimbus had an idea! Orbit had been hiding in its crater, so its solar panel never got any sun. So they all pushed Orbit up the crater wall. Pip puffed warm steam on the squeaky wheel to loosen it. When they got to the top, the sun was just coming up over the edge of the moon, and Orbit's panel started to hum.

Orbit's lantern glowed bright gold again, and it finished the whole ocean book. Professor Bramble made Orbit the official librarian of the moon. On the way home, Nimbus wrote in her clipboard that being lonely is a lot like being in a dark crater. The fix is not a new battery; it is coming up where the light is and asking for a book. When they got back to the pond that night, they looked up. On the moon there was a tiny gold dot of light that wasn't there before. Pip said, "That's Orbit reading."