Has one book made such a big mark on you that it stays with you for the rest of your life? That is what The Girl Who Drank the Moon did to me. The plot revolves around a girl, Lundi and her caretakers and friends, Xan the witch, Glerk, the swamp monster, and the dragon, Fyrian. The story moves smoothly and beautifully. At the end, the conclusion blossoms like a pink rose in spring. One way it changed me was how I thought about generic “witches” in fairy tales. Most had puke-green faces, warts, and a pointy black hat along with matching black robes. They rode broomsticks and were evil. The witch Xan is not evil, she is gentle and caring, but all the people in the village think that she is evil. The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a fictional story with magical elements, but I think it tackles some problems about stereotyping in the real world, too. Luna’s rashness in the beginning of the story also reminded me of my own cheerful and mischievous childhood. Luna acted so upbeat but ten times as troublesome as your average toddler. Seeing her antics that caused serious damage, like turning a barn into a gingerbread house, made me giggle and shake my head at the same time. It was exciting to see a young me in the book. Finally, when I realized the true antagonist of the book, my first thought was, “Whoa, I don’t want to be like that when I grow up!” And do you know what’s sad? The antagonist could have become a nice normal person. They just made the wrong choices. I plan on not making the wrong choices. The Girl Who Drank the Moon has impacted me in so many ways. It was a great book, and it has changed me a lot. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Algonquin Young Readers, 2019. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Kelly Barnhill
Book Club Report: The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill
An update from our twenty-second Book Club meeting! On Saturday, December 5, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed the novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon, written by Kelly Barnhill. The Girl Who Drank the Moon is about a girl named Luna, and the story follows her as she grows up, and learns about both her magic and her past. Our meeting consisted of forty kids from across the US and in the UK, and we were incredibly lucky to be joined by the author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill!! Ms. Barnhill visited with our Book Club for nearly forty minutes. We asked her a variety of questions, and she told us about her writing process and where her ideas come from, as well sharing some writing tips. We learned about how Ms. Barnhill wanted to set The Girl Who Drank the Moon in a society where the truth was veiled in lies, and we received excellent advice on how to follow through on our story ideas, however hard they may seem to write down. Thank you very much, Ms. Barnhill! If you attended this session of Book Club, please write a thank you note to Ms. Barnhill and email it to me at anya@stonesoup.com, if you have not done so already. I will forward it to her! After Ms. Barnhill’s visit, we only had a little bit of time left, but we were able to have some fascinating discussions about setting and characters in The Girl Who Drank the Moon. We debated the complexities of both the good and evil characters, and thought about the symbolism and significance of different places in the book. It was really interesting to hear what everyone had to say! Finally, we chose our next book, which is listed below. Important Note: Book Club is taking a break for the next few weeks. Right now, we are not sure exactly when in January it will return, but we will tell you as soon as we know! Our Next Book (date TBD): The Night Diary, by Veera Hiranandani
Book Club Report: Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger
An update from our twenty-first Book Club meeting! Our most recent Book Club meeting was on October 31–Halloween! We had several participants who dressed up, representing characters from Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, and our current read–Keeper of the Lost Cities, which is about a girl, Sophie, who discovers she is an elf with magical powers! Our discussion, which included 28 kids from across the US, and in the UK, began with a brief talk about whether we liked the book or not. We generally agreed that it was an entertaining story, though the characters were somewhat flat, and the elf-world was sometimes a little too perfect. We then split into breakout rooms to talk more in-depth about the characters and setting, coming to some very good conclusions regarding whether we felt Sophie was a compelling main character, and why or why not; and a deeper look into the very glossy, shiny elf world, which may not be as great as it seems. It was really fun to have these conversations, and hear everyone’s thoughts! Next, we were given a thinking/writing prompt: if you were an elf and had magical powers, which magical power would you want, and why? We pondered this for a few minutes, and then shared our answers. People responded that they would like to be Telepaths (like Sophie), Inflictors, Polyglots, Hydrokinetics, and many more! We also debated whether we would even want to have powers, and which powers we would not like to have. Overall, it was a fascinating conversation. We finished up our book club by choosing our next book, which is listed below. We hope you see you all on December 5 to discuss it! Our Next Book (to be discussed on December 5): The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all kids ages 9-13. Our next meeting is on the first Saturday of December at 9am PST, via Zoom. Registration is required. It is $10 per class–and half off for all subscribers. You can sign up for Book Club via Eventbrite here.
