Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I’ve been purposely skipping over The Girl Who Drank the Moon for months.  (It’s been on my shelf since shortly after it won the Newbery Medal, of course, and that was over 18 months ago.)  I’d look at the spine without enthusiasm and think–it’s long, and it’s not really my thing anymore, and I’ll just pick something else right now, because I was so sure I wasn’t going to love it.

Yeah, I was SO wrong.  As wrong as I was about Holes and Maniac McGee, both of which I put off reading because I didn’t think I’d terribly enjoy them.  The Girl Who Drank the Moon sucked me in on the first page and had me fast by the fifth.  It had the jump-into-a-frank-conversation-among-major characters vibe that Robin McKinley’s books do, but Barnhill’s style is wholly her own.  Girl/Moon weaved smoothly among related and converging stories, and it did so in such a perfectly paced way that it didn’t suffer one bit from being read in small increments over a longer period of time.  (Do you know how RARE that is?)  Every step built the story, moving it forward to completion, but not one left me frustrated and impatient for this or that plot piece to resolve.  (Also an incredibly rare occurrence.)  The characters were well- and compassionately drawn, the resolution felt perfect–I seriously just LOVED THIS BOOK.  Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve felt that way about a fantasy author I’ve never read before?

So.  Just read this book, okay?  It’s got a witch, and a swamp creature, and a Simply Enormous Dragon (or is he?), and there is sorrow and hope and loss and joy and a particularly handy pair of boots.  Think, perhaps, of the heart of The Tale of Despereaux and the unexpectedness (and some of the humor) of The Princess Bride, but a story all its own, and you have an incredibly deserving Newbery Medal winner that is also well-loved by its intended audience (yet another comparative rarity!).  Who could ask for anything more?