Did I dream this or was this actually written?

July 26, 2006 1:55 PM

Another "what is this story I read as a child?" question: All I can remember was there was a beautiful young girl who was locked in a closet or shed by her mother-figure-type person, who then had to bathe herself by moonlight by rubbing an apple over her skin. Sound familiar?
posted by greta simone to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Oh, gosh, this was serialized in Cricket magazine over a couple of months. I'll have to go page through my collection downstairs...
posted by nonane at 2:41 PM on July 26, 2006

This sounds so familiar to me, it's killing me! Could it have been from a collection? Was it quite a dark story, like an older not-for-kids fairy tale?

When I read your question, I was sure I'd read this story. And I'm linking it in my mind with a story I read as a kid: I think there's a boy who's never let out in the day and a girl who can never go out in the night - or vice versa? One of them has never seen the sun and the other has never seen the moon, I think.

Does my story sound familiar to you? If not, just ignore.
posted by peep at 2:51 PM on July 26, 2006

Best answer: Ok, it's "The Girl Who Washed in Moonlight," by Margaret Mahy, and was serialized starting in the October 1985 issue of Cricket.
posted by nonane at 2:58 PM on July 26, 2006 [1 favorite]

The wicked witch locks her in a cupboard at night because the girl's cleanliness and purity offends her; she washes herself with magic soap her mother had given her. When the witch starts preventing her from going out in the day, she washes herself with milk from her rations, then with the dried apple from her dinner, then finally in only the moonlight.

"Alone in the cupboard, the girl ate half the apple, then rubbed herself with the magic soap and the remaining half of the apple. Its juice washed away some of the witch's darkness -- but this time, not all. The next day, the witch was delighted to see the girl's brightness streaked with black. The wicked moss was beginning to grow over her."

Illustrations by Lloyd Bloom; it also appears to have been published in School Journal 1984 pt3.no.1, told on Radio New Zealand in a current storytime series, and published as a picture book in 1987.
posted by nonane at 3:05 PM on July 26, 2006

Response by poster: Awesome guys! now, where can I read it online?
posted by greta simone at 5:59 PM on July 26, 2006

Peep, your story sounds like the movie "LadyHawke".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:58 PM on July 26, 2006

Different story peep, that was part of the collection "Tales from Silver Lands", a collection of South American folk tales.
posted by zabuni at 9:59 PM on July 26, 2006

Your best bet is to ask your library to ILL (inter-library loan) it for you (either the picture book or copies of the serialized version in Cricket) or buy it.
posted by Margalo Epps at 10:14 AM on July 27, 2006