Customer Reviews

What the Moon Saw

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was lucky enough to meet Laura Resau when she came and gave a talk in my Children's Literature class in Maryland. I have to say that there isn't a thing in this book that wasn't derived from her life experiences. When she talks about the "limpia," the ritual steam baths, and lifestyles of the people in Mexico, she was there, she saw them, she experienced them. This is what makes this novel so compelling; from the beginning, the characters feel like real people and it's because they were based on real people!

Don't be detered by the seemingly young adult cover, this is a book for all ages! More than anything, this book is about a girl named Clara trying to find herself, and does so when she visits her grandparents in a small village in Mexico. The characters in this book are so real and they are so natural that you can't help but be drawn into their lives.

Clara is a typical teenage girl who needs her tv and her computer, but she finds that these things aren't nearly as important when she begins to live in Mexico. By reading this book, you not only learn more about a culture that is rarely or if ever talked about, but you may find that you learn a little about yourself and what your true passion is. If anything, you'll come away with a new appreciation for an area of the world that you know little about.

Overall, this is an unputdownable book and deserves the attention of everyone! If you are lucky enough to have Laura Resau coming to your area, go see her and listen to her talk about her experiences and where she gets her inspiration from! It will definitly inspire you.

My 14 y/o daughter got this as a present a while back and then gave it to me, her dad, to read. It is a very enjoyable and moving book that has both elements of fantasy and reality. I was thinking while I read it that hopefully someone would make a movie of this story. I recommend it for anyone age 12-120.

Resau's writing has the feel of someone who has spent years perfecting her art so that now she can tell a compelling story with richness and color and depth, writing that speaks on many levels and conveys a whole culture, another way of life. The writing is taut, without excess, but at the same time full and sensuous, erecting edifices with a flick of a word or two. Her sentences themselves are like questing vines, with curlicues in their interior!

I like how Resau brings out the wider reverberations of events as they rumble by. For instance, right at the beginning, Clara sneaks out of her house at night and submerges herself under the water in the nearby stream. It's a baptism into the other world, a world far from her suburban upbringing, an intimation of the spirit world she'll enter more fully later in the story. It's so powerful, the type of iconic image that keeps returning to one's mind after reading passages like this.

As the chapters progress the tension and drama grows. It got my heart pounding, totally worried about what was going to happen. I didn't want to stop reading and it kept getting better as I saw more and more of the connections between the stories of the grandmother and grandchild.

I really like how Resau weaves multiple occurrences of events/actions/people through the novel and then joins them so that the different pieces all slide smoothly one into another. She's created a page-turner, but one where you savor the individual pages with their evocative and vivid experiences.

And it feels like Resau is honoring some of the people she's met on her travels, transferring some essence of them into the characters in the book, spreading their determination and way of being out to others in the world.

On one level, this story is about a girl becoming aware of her ancestry and powers, and her acceptance of these. On another level, it's about getting all of us to listen to the messages sent by the natural and spiritual world. But, most simply, it's a wonderful read, a satisfying story for readers of all ages.

This is a fantastic book. The literature says it is for 10 and above, but as an adult I had no problem reading it. The language is beautiful - almost lyrical. This book is a great jumping off point to get kids talking about pride and heritage. I'm sure this book is going to find its way into classrooms very quickly.

Buy it, buy it, buy it!

My daughter, 15, loves a good book. When she read this one last year she said this one was the best stories she had ever read and that I "have to read this one!" I did, and found it to be a well-written (beautiful symbolism and metaphor), entertaining, adventurous, and tender coming of age story of a girl who's world opens up widely when she finds out what it means to discover and be true to herself. I loved it, too!

What The Moon Saw is one of those books that I tried to read slowly. I didn't want it to end too soon so instead of sitting down and reading several chapters through at a time, I'd read a chapter and then soak it in. I enjoyed it that much.

This is the story of a girl named Clara Luna ("clear moon") who feels that she is out of place in her Walnut Hill, MD environment but she doesn't know why. Sensing the girl's restlessness across the thousands of miles that separated them, her grandmother sends Clara an invitation to her home in a small village in Mexico. Nervous, but curious, the girl agrees to go. A bit of the backstory is that Clara's father had illegally immigrated from that Mexican village to America when he was in his late teens. He never talked much about his past with his American family and he had never visited his parents since his departure.

It took Clara longer to reach her grandparents' home (one plane trip and three bus rides) than it did for her to feel comfortable there. She went for walks and learned quickly about how she could do her share for the family. She listened to her Abuelita's stories about being a healer. In alternate chapters, the grandmother told her past and Clara told the present. Clara quickly became close with her grandparents. She even learned that she might be a healer like her grandmother. Clara met a boy goatherd named Pedro. They became close friends and talked and walked through the mountainside. Their encounters gave the greatest description of the beauty of the natural world in the village.

Clara felt hollow and misplaced in a world where value is placed on material things but found her spirit while living in a shack in a small mountain village. This book was very enjoyable for more than her story. It had a message that reminded the reader that life is about more than the things we own. Life is about the connection between people and nature. It's about the lives and the spirits that we touch. The book's language was beautiful in its simplicity and with some Spanish interspersed, it really evoked a sense of `being there'.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is not just a girl story. It is the story of the human condition.

5 stars at Amazon (4 cookies and a glass of milk - with cinnamon - at CookieBooky.com)

This is one of those rare books that shows how remarkable and exciting the world we live in is. It has all the intrigue, magic, and adventure of the best fantasy books, yet it's real. Or rather, it happens in a real place, with real cultures and history presented in an enchanting way. I was swept up by the story, the characters, the beautiful writing, and the extremely well-depicted settings.

I highly recommend this book to teachers who want to expose their students to the richness of other cultures, to adults who want to recapture a sense of youthful adventure, and to teens who are looking for something to read that they won't be able to put down. But more than just a good read, this is an important, timely book that explores the issue of immigration from an unusual perspective --that of an American born girl who travels to southern Mexico to discover her heritage. It's a book that reveals the hidden magic in life while depicting the sparkling essence of humanity and the fine threads that connect us all. Reading it will remind you of all that's wonderful in the world.

This book is sooooo good -- an exciting, wonderful story of Clara Luna and her trip to Oaxaca, Mexico -- I stayed up all night reading this book because I couldn't put it down - and it was worth being tired the next day. Adults and young adults will love it - and be inspired too.

Clara Luna is the fourteen year-old daughter of a Mexican father and an American mother. She feels restless in her life when suddenly she receives a letter from her Abuelita in Yucutoo, Oaxaca, Mexico, inviting her to spend the summer with her Mexican grandparents whom she has never met. Her father has not seen his parents since he left twenty years ago. Clara decides to go and although she has no idea how diverse their indigenous culture is compared to her own, she has a wonderful summer learning about this different way of life, and about Abuelita Helena's life in particular. This is a rare story in depth and insight, sure to make coming-of-age readers feel exceptionally good about their heritage and about getting to know their forebears, be they Hispanic or otherwise. Helena's story is simply enthralling, and Clara has inklings of inheriting her abuelita's gifts of clarity. A Spanish/English glossary and a Mixteco/English glossary both with pronunciation guides is welcome. The climax of the book is somewhat disappointing in its language and description, as if the author had a sudden deadline to meet and didn't have time to weave the intricate magic that was so prevalent throughout this book. That not withstanding, you'll not want this story to be over.

This book is amazing. Brings you into the Mexican heritage. Usually you take your life for granted, but this puts life in a whole different view. Anybody from 1- 10000000000 would love it. It's amazing, for all ages. Buy it!