The House the Moon Moved is an illustrated book based on the true story of a home that was swept into the ocean by a King Tide in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands. The IOM team there wrote and translated the story into five languages from the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Local artist, Jimson Rudolph, captured both the beauty and the danger that the ocean presents to island nations that are increasingly susceptible to natural disaster.
The story book will be available to teachers participating in the Climate Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and Education Plus (CADRE Plus) Program, allowing students age-appropriate information about this specific hazard.
Click "play" below and scroll down to enjoy the story of the House the Moon Moved.
The mom was asleep, the two boys were asleep and the cat named Flashlight was asleep.
In the sky above the stars were bright, the moon was big and round, and the wind was blowing softly.
This was the night that the moon moved the house, but how did it happen?
First the moon moved, it moved how moons do, but a couple of times each month the moon moves so it lines up with the sun.
When the sun, the moon, and the Earth are across from each other, in a straight line - sometimes the Earth is in the middle, sometimes the moon is in the middle, but the sun is never in the middle.
Sometimes the sun and the moon pull the tide of the waves higher than high.
This happens about three or four times a year when the moon is both in a new or full phase and the point in its orbit that brings the moon closest to the Earth.
This is the position where the gravitational pull of the moon is the highest, pulling the average range of tides higher.
So on this night, the moon and the sun pulled the ocean high tide really high.
This is called a "king tide", a "super moon" or a "perigean spring tide".
The wind blew the water, as the wind sometimes does, and the water pushed up against the bright orange house. The waves pushed so hard they lifted and moved the house!
The mom woke up and said "Wurur!"
The two boys woke up and said "We are wet!"
The family ran out into the night with their emergency kit and walked quickly to their Auntie's house near the ocean side. It was safe and dry there.
In the morning everyone worked together to clean up any mess caused by the king tide.
If you visit the bright orange house, you can still see the skid marks from the night the moon moved it.
This book was made possible with the support of the United States Government through the United States Agency for International Development's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and the RMI National Disaster Committee (NDC) and National Disaster Management Office (NDMO).
