After losing her best friend, Timothy, at sea, Miranda removes herself from society and goes on a self-destructive path, feeling that there is no longer anyone in the world capable of dealing with her hearing impediment but, in time, begins to heal and once again open herself to the world.
Cheshire Moon
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Still aching over her cousin Timothy's death and furious at her parents' insistence that she speak rather than sign, a deaf 13-year-old named Miranda expects an unfulfilling summer at her aunt's house in Maine. This seemingly familiar summer-in-New-England odyssey is enhanced by debut author Butts's deft exploration of Miranda's irritable isolation and her prickly friendship with Boone, a local boy. The plot turns mystical when both teens start having identical dreams about Timothy and a mysterious island. If they're only dreams, why do the teens wake to sand and shells in their beds? "Dreams have a way of coming real on Summerhaven," intones shopkeeper Mr. Leach, attributing the dreams to the smiling face of the full "Cheshire" moon. "Didn't say they come true.... Said they come real." When Miranda is impelled to canoe across the windswept bay in the middle of the night toward a Brigadoon-like island that arises out of the mist, Boone must risk his life to head off disaster. The author has a sharp ear for dialogue and shows equal perception in observing Miranda's deafness. But with the confusing combination of reality and dreams, it's hard for readers to know when they should take stated dangers seriously. Even magical events must possess their own logic and continuity; although promising, this story breaches that caveat. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Most anyone would be apprehensive about returning to an aunt's idyllic summer home on an island in Penobscot Bay after a favorite cousin is lost at sea. Miranda has more difficulty than most expressing her feelings. She is profoundly hearing impaired, and Timothy was one of the few close friends with whom her disability did not prevent fluent communication. Communication, rather than his mysterious disappearance, becomes central to this story. Torn between her desire to use sign language and her parents' and teachers' insistence on oral speech, Miranda finds herself retreating from the hearing world. Her feelings of isolation will speak loudly to all readers. Assorted characters add color. Mr. Leach, a mysterious shop owner, tells Miranda about the island's myth tied to the occasional appearance of a "Cheshire moon." He warns her that when the moon smiles, folks get pretty strange dreams. Aunt Kit seems rather the typical oblivious parent figure. Boone, a responsible teen employed by Aunt Kit for odd jobs, provides the lure of pulling Miranda back into the real world. The chemistry between Boone and Miranda sizzles. He too, has the recurring dreams that match Miranda's nocturnal adventures. The fantasy elements of Summerhaven, a place "haunted by dreams, not ghosts" where Native Americans send the sick for curative visions, may be harder for readers to buy. What exactly happened to Timothy? Loose ends weaken interesting premises.
Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Nancy Butts has had her head stuck in a book ever since she learned to read--and she's been writing stories for just as long. Her younger sisters still tease her about how she used to hide out in the coat closet just to find a quiet place to read, and even today she is still looking for the perfect sanctuary where she can sneak away to write.
She published her first poem at age ten, and decided after reading Madeleine L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time' in fifth grade that she wanted to be a writer, too. But she never thought she was good enough, so by the sixth grade she decided to be an astronomer instead: and after that a lawyer, Congresswoman, spy, and finally a doctor. And if she hadn't gone to Duke University, where she learned that in order to be premed she had to hang out in chemistry lectures with 500 other students, she might be a doctor today. Instead, she took a seminar in Zen Buddhism and decided that spending all her time talking about big ideas in small classes with bearded professors was what college was supposed to be about. She switched her major to religion--with a minor in Russian of all things--happily haunted the stacks of the college library for four years (even better than a coat closet!), and when she graduated, had absolutely zero idea what she wanted to do with her life.
So she sat down, read all 88 Agatha Christie mystery novels in two months, took a job in a lab, got married, moved to Georgia, and spent the next six years thinking that she really should have applied to medical school after all. Then she tried PA school instead, had an early mid-life crisis, and when someone asked her what she saw herself doing in ten years, she suddenly remembered what she had known back in fifth grade: she wanted to write. She quit school, and within a few months she had landed a job as a reporter at a small-town newspaper. She spent the next eleven years working there, writing several stories each week and winning awards. But once her son was born she secretly started to write her first children's book--the story that ultimately became her debut novel, 'Cheshire Moon.'
Of course it wasn't that easy. It took her years to finish that first book, then four months to find a publisher. When she learned that her editor was the same man who had also edited her girlhood idol, Madeleine L'Engle, Nancy felt as if she had finally found what she was meant to do. "Cheshire Moon' was published and won the respect of members of the deaf community for its portrayal of a young deaf girl who will communicate only in Sign. This book was soon followed by the science fiction novel 'The Door in the Lake,' which Nancy wrote so that her son might actually be interested in reading it. (He took it to school after it was published and shared it with his friends, so she thinks she succeeded.) 'Door' was an ALA Quick Pick and a Scholastic Book Club selection, and was even "translated" into the Queen's English for a British edition.
Since then Nancy spends much of her time working as a creative writing teacher. Some of the people whose books she's had the privilege of shepherding into the world are Monica Roe, author of the YA novel 'Thaw'; Alberto Hazan, author of the YA fantasy series 'The League of Freaks'; and Jennifer Lundquist, author of the forthcoming middle grade novel, 'Seeing Cinderella.' Nancy is also a freelance writer and editor. She has published several books for the direct-to-school education market, and is the editor of a how-to book on revision entitled 'Write it Right!' by the author Sandra Asher.
Somewhere during these years she also managed to land a spot as a contestant on the TV game show "Jeopardy" and was a one-day champion.
But writing fiction for kids continues to be her passion, and she is working hard on another middle grade novel set in a sleepy Southern town much like the one where she lives: only with more ghosts.
There is just one ghost in the 130-year-old Victorian cottage where Nancy lives and works: one humming ghost, and far too few electric outlets for the Apple laptops which are her auxiliary brain. When she's not teaching, editing, or trying to carve out time for her own writing, Nancy is an avid Nordic walker; and she also likes to grow herbs, make quilts, knit miles and miles of scarves, play the mountain dulcimer and Finnish kantele, be the Mac tech support person for everyone she knows, and tend to her slightly neurotic Newfoundland dog, Yukon.
She published her first poem at age ten, and decided after reading Madeleine L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time' in fifth grade that she wanted to be a writer, too. But she never thought she was good enough, so by the sixth grade she decided to be an astronomer instead: and after that a lawyer, Congresswoman, spy, and finally a doctor. And if she hadn't gone to Duke University, where she learned that in order to be premed she had to hang out in chemistry lectures with 500 other students, she might be a doctor today. Instead, she took a seminar in Zen Buddhism and decided that spending all her time talking about big ideas in small classes with bearded professors was what college was supposed to be about. She switched her major to religion--with a minor in Russian of all things--happily haunted the stacks of the college library for four years (even better than a coat closet!), and when she graduated, had absolutely zero idea what she wanted to do with her life.
So she sat down, read all 88 Agatha Christie mystery novels in two months, took a job in a lab, got married, moved to Georgia, and spent the next six years thinking that she really should have applied to medical school after all. Then she tried PA school instead, had an early mid-life crisis, and when someone asked her what she saw herself doing in ten years, she suddenly remembered what she had known back in fifth grade: she wanted to write. She quit school, and within a few months she had landed a job as a reporter at a small-town newspaper. She spent the next eleven years working there, writing several stories each week and winning awards. But once her son was born she secretly started to write her first children's book--the story that ultimately became her debut novel, 'Cheshire Moon.'
Of course it wasn't that easy. It took her years to finish that first book, then four months to find a publisher. When she learned that her editor was the same man who had also edited her girlhood idol, Madeleine L'Engle, Nancy felt as if she had finally found what she was meant to do. "Cheshire Moon' was published and won the respect of members of the deaf community for its portrayal of a young deaf girl who will communicate only in Sign. This book was soon followed by the science fiction novel 'The Door in the Lake,' which Nancy wrote so that her son might actually be interested in reading it. (He took it to school after it was published and shared it with his friends, so she thinks she succeeded.) 'Door' was an ALA Quick Pick and a Scholastic Book Club selection, and was even "translated" into the Queen's English for a British edition.
Since then Nancy spends much of her time working as a creative writing teacher. Some of the people whose books she's had the privilege of shepherding into the world are Monica Roe, author of the YA novel 'Thaw'; Alberto Hazan, author of the YA fantasy series 'The League of Freaks'; and Jennifer Lundquist, author of the forthcoming middle grade novel, 'Seeing Cinderella.' Nancy is also a freelance writer and editor. She has published several books for the direct-to-school education market, and is the editor of a how-to book on revision entitled 'Write it Right!' by the author Sandra Asher.
Somewhere during these years she also managed to land a spot as a contestant on the TV game show "Jeopardy" and was a one-day champion.
But writing fiction for kids continues to be her passion, and she is working hard on another middle grade novel set in a sleepy Southern town much like the one where she lives: only with more ghosts.
There is just one ghost in the 130-year-old Victorian cottage where Nancy lives and works: one humming ghost, and far too few electric outlets for the Apple laptops which are her auxiliary brain. When she's not teaching, editing, or trying to carve out time for her own writing, Nancy is an avid Nordic walker; and she also likes to grow herbs, make quilts, knit miles and miles of scarves, play the mountain dulcimer and Finnish kantele, be the Mac tech support person for everyone she knows, and tend to her slightly neurotic Newfoundland dog, Yukon.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Discover the Magic of Cheshire Moon!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cheshire Moon (Hardcover)
If you enjoy suspense, mystery, and the magic of summer with the story of girl struggling with grief and a special need.. this book is for you... Butts does a great job with keeping the suspense alive throughout the whole book... Read this book for a graduate class issue study on deaf culture... SO GLAD I DID>> it is a great book.. great for a classroom teacher to read aloud or curl up with on a bad weather day.... discover the magic the chesire moon plays in miranda's life...
5.0 out of 5 stars
very imaginative,
By CFG (US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cheshire Moon (Hardcover)
Reading this book makes one wonder how far from fiction it really is. A great read.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
