Sam, Bangs & Moonshine

Young readers whose mothers are mermaids, who own fierce lions and baby kangaroos, and can talk to their cats, will find a fast friend in the heroine of this imaginative, humorous book.

Samantha (everyone calls her Sam) is a fisherman’s daughter who dreams rich and lovely dreams – moonshine, her father says. She sits in her dragon drawn chariot and says wise things to Bangs, her cat, and she often sends Thomas, her devoted friend, to look for her pet kangaroo who always seems to have "just stepped out." One day, Sam sends little Thomas to Blue Rock, far out in the harbor where, she claims, her kangaroo has gone. When a sudden storm brings near disaster to Thomas and to Bangs, Sam repentantly draws a permanent line between moonshine and reality. 

Winner of the 1967 Caldecott Medal