A Tale of Many Moons

I have this theory about Newbery winners/honorees.... Okay, I have a couple theories and they're both pretty ridiculous. The first one is that if you have “Elizabeth” in your name, you're more likely to win. (I can't remember the stats now, but there are more winners with that name than any other.)

The second is that you're more likely to win if you have “Moon” in your title.

The latter theory was developed on-the-run over the past few weeks. I've been having a month of particularly excellent reading, centered around three books: Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin; and Moon over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool. Oddly enough, I chose these books only because I wanted to immerse myself in the best of middle grade fiction, and only later realized that they all had “moon” in their title...but it makes you think, huh? :)

Joking aside, this really has been a season of incredible reading. I'll presume that most of you have read the first two titles (you'd better), but how many of you have had the chance to read Moon over Manifest, this year's Newbery medalist? I finished it this morning, and I'm still caught up in the glow of discovering an amazing book for the first time.

You have to read it.

Because I'm a “list person”, allow me to word my praise in the way it's running through my mind:

1. Characters. So well developed, so real. And I mean every character—even the “minor ones”...but by the end of the story, you feel that there are no minor ones, that every single person who crosses a page is intrinsic to the heart of the story.

2. Plot. Clare Vanderpool did this amazing thing where she completely dissolved the line between character book and plot book and managed to have both, in a completely satisfying way. To those of you who mentioned a few weeks ago that you're still looking for good books for young boys, give this to them. Yes, even though the first main character you see is a girl. I promise you they will love the thrills and the action, the suspense...and the cons. What boy doesn't love a good con?

3. The Power of Story. This theme keeps popping up in my life (in all three Moon books, for example), and it is one that is very meaningful to me. Here, it is masterfully presented.

4. Connectedness. I've realized, over the past few years, that this is the one element that will make me fall head over heels for a story, more than any other one thing. I think that this is what fiction is all about...showing the way people are all connected, the way events are all connected, the way past and present and future are connected.

So those are just the big things. Somehow, the nice little details like how great the prose is managed to slip into my subconscious—every word is perfectly chosen, which is probably why I hardly noticed them as I sped along in the story. The setting is 4-dimensional—and you math people will have to concede on this one, because it really does cross the line of time. All the little and big themes are interwoven flawlessly. Every action is believable; every emotion is believable.

Sigh... I love when the big committees get it SO right.