Barnhill, K. (2016).
The Girl Who Drank the Moon. New York, NY; Algonquin Young Readers.
Protectorate is a town who believes in witches a, dragons and magic and is run by elders. Every year a baby is left in the same spot in the forest by the town’s people as an offering to keep a witch from doing harm to the town. Xan, the witch, unaware of the towns beliefs rescues abandon babies left in the forest and finds suitable families that are willing to take care of them. Xan lives with Glerk the Swamp Monster and Fyrian, a Tiny Dragon. There was one problem Xan keeps a baby she names Luna and accidently feeds her moonlight instead of starlight (nourishes a baby) and caused her to be filled with magic. As years go by, Luna remembers her mother and realizes she had a family. A young man named Atain starts to question how things are run and things start changing. He sets out in search of a so-called witch that will take his baby next, the fog over the town clears and Luna finds herself saving the world in the same place where her mother has been locked up since she went all by the time she is 13 years old.
This fantasy read, written in 3rd person, is perfect for middle grade student’s ages 10-13 who love magic and mythical creatures, a 500-year-old witch raising a magical baby can’t get better than that. It is a coming of age story as we read from the time Luna was a baby, goes through different changes and up to when she’s about 13 years old.
The story is a little dark because it deals with witches having power over good people who are taken to sad places, the town where they live is poor and a thick fog lingers above them covering all the light and we read from the prospective of all the characters.
Glerk and Fyrian's interactions with Luna are heart felt and humorous, they made me giggle, thinking of all the adventures I went through with my family.
There are life lessons in these pages--important ones about love, friendship, bravery, and family.
Hope is one of the themes, wanting to overcome sadness, all the sadness that made the witches heart into a pearl and then as it popped, having all that sadness leave you because you didn’t give up. Another theme in the story is don’t believe everything you hear. This comes out when Atain wants to kill the witch to save his family without even knowing the truth.
Life has a funny way of bringing people together, doing everything for a loved one, to overcome evil, as we see how Glerk, Fyrian, and Xan help Luna kill the witch. This book is on NYT Bestseller list.
Check it out: The
Girl who Drank the Moon Book Trailer by Texas Bluebonnet Award and an
Other Books
by this Kelly Barnhill include:
The Witch’s
Boy, where one twin survives a bewitched river only to experience that the
villagers think the wrong boy lived, and Iron Hearted Violet, about a plain,
reckless princess who along with her best friend find a forbidden book.
These items
could be used to display in the library or classroom library center to promote
curiosity: Moon, Origami Birds, dragon, Black Boots, Volcano
Topics for discussion
may include themes such as: good vs. evil, love, and friendship.
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