Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal!
Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey.
GENRE:
Middle Grade, Fantasy
PAGES:
388 pages
PART OF A SERIES?:
Standalone Novel
RELEASE DATE:
August 9th, 2016
PUBLISHER:
Algonquin Young Readers
SOURCE:
Ebook from Library
YOU CAN PRE-ORDER THE BOOK AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE/LIBRARY OR THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey.
One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule–but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her–even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.
MY REVIEW
I normally don’t read middle grade novels unless they’re highly recommended to me. Its mostly because there are so many and I’m not involved in the MG community the way I am with YA. But when Joe from The Protagonist Podcast asked me back as a guest and asked me to read this book, I told him, sure.
We were originally supposed to do the recording for this back in March but had to reschedule – because of this, I thought I finished the book but I didn’t. So the DAY BEFORE we were actually going to record the episode, I sat down, borrowed it from the e-library and immediately read it – in about two hours because holy cow, this book is absolutely amazing.
The first thing I said when I finished the book and I was processing it was – this book is absolutely beautiful. And it truly is – its the best word to describe it. Kelly’s writing is just honestly so beautiful. She creates this lush, real world with rich characters and her writing is just poetry. I completely forgot the entire time that I was reading that this was a book meant for children because it was gorgeous. It almost gave me the vibes of The Princess Bride, this classic fairy tale with just a little extra. It was just such a classic story and the last third of the book was done so well, jumping from point of view to point of view so seamlessly as various characters were heading toward each other. Not once did I feel confused or any of that – everything flowed so perfectly.
As I mentioned before – she creates such rich characters. The characters are truly the heart of this book and there are so many of them. Supporting characters can kind of get lost in the shuffle or feel sort of forced or one-dimensional but that is not the case in this book. Even though one would assume that Luna is the main character, as she is the girl who drank the moon, all the characters are treated fairly equally and Luna herself is more the subject of the POVs. Each character has their own story arc and they all intertwine into this one, big story and its just done so well. I love that each character is so unique and both fall into these fairy tale archetypes but also completely don’t at the same time.
I could go on and on and on about this book but I feel like I would be saying the same things again and again. This book is truly beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone, even those who would not read a children’s book because its just a fantastic book. I completely see why it won such a prestigious award and I can’t wait to share our podcast episode later this year!
RATING:
5 out of 5 Stars
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