Moonpenny Island
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Readers of Kate DiCamillo and Sheila Turnage will love Moonpenny Island, a middle grade novel of friendship and secrets by the beloved and acclaimed Tricia Springstubb.
Moonpenny is a tiny island in a great lake. When the summer people leave and the ferries stop running, just the tried-and-true islanders are left behind. Flor and her best, her perfect friend, Sylvie, are the only eleven-year-olds for miles and miles—and Flor couldn’t be happier. But come the end of summer, unthinkable things begin to happen. Sylvie is suddenly, mysteriously, whisked away to school on the mainland. Flor’s mother leaves to take care of Flor’s sick grandmother and doesn’t come back. Her big sister has a secret, and Flor fears it’s a dangerous one.
Meanwhile, a geologist and his peculiar daughter arrive to excavate prehistoric trilobites, one of the first creatures to develop sight. Soon Flor is helping them. As her own ability to see her life on this little lump of limestone evolves, she faces truths about those she loves—and about herself—she never imagined.
How can one girl hold her world together when everyone she loves is leaving or keeping secrets?
An Unbreakable Friendship: Flor and Sylvie are the only eleven-year-olds on Moonpenny Island and their bond is everything… until Sylvie is suddenly sent away, leaving Flor to navigate a lonely new world.Sisters and Secrets: With her mother gone and her big sister Cecilia hiding something dangerous, Flor must uncover the truths her family has been keeping just to survive.A Vivid Island Setting: Discover a tiny, close-knit community on a Great Lake, a place of limestone quarries, trilobite fossils, and year-round islanders with their own way of life.A Moving Story of Change: Perfect for young readers learning to cope with big feelings, this novel explores what happens when the life you love disappears and you have to find your own way to see clearly.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Some things in life change wham-bam, dramatic and sudden as a pin and a balloon. But usually, change is sneakier. More like that balloon leaking its air, deflating bit by bit." Springstubb (Mo Wren, Lost and Found) follows Flor O'Dell's search for sure footing as her safe, comfortable island life is rocked by change. Flor faces several potentially earth-shattering shifts in her family and friendships just as she's entering sixth grade, each knock like "an invisible fist on the end of a long arm," leaving her bruised and angry. Can friendship survive distance? Should she worry about her sister's strange behavior? Will her parents stop fighting? Will Mama return to her big Spanish-speaking family? And who is that strange girl watching Flor everywhere she goes? While exploring familiar themes of the unavoidable changes of adolescence, the novel weaves complex layers of fresh, relatable imagery and charming characterization across education levels, cultures, and generations, beautifully teaching that our shared humanity is one thing that doesn't change. Ages 8 12.
