Meet the Moon by Kerry L. Malawista

Jody (AKA Stringbean) is navigating adolescence in the early 1970s. She contemplates the moon and the stars with her mom. They worry together over the fate of the astronauts of Apollo 13 and whether those men will burn up on re-entry to Earth. One of five children, Jody has the typical issues of a thirteen- to fourteen-year-old girl of the era, the sort that easily resolves when teens grow up: Does her crush like her back? Will her breasts develop like her older sister’s have (and why are small bras called training bras anyway)? What will she wear to the dance? 

Death Changes Everything

Jody also experiences tragedy that no teen should have to face: her mom dies in a car accident. So while she’s negotiating the usual troubles, she is also facing larger life issues. Why can’t her mom be saved here on earth when scientists can save the Apollo 13 astronauts in space? Can her mom see or hear her or even be felt as a ghost? Was Jody’s behavior—she told her mom that she wished she would die—responsible for her mom’s accident? How is the family to get through each day?

With the death of their mother, things radically change for the Moran children. Their dad is still working hard on his tile business and the older kids—Claire and Jody—take on some of the responsibility for the younger ones. Meanwhile, the three younger children have a hard time understanding that their mother is never going to return. The added responsibility of mothering is too much for Jody. She campaigns to have her beloved Grandma Cupcakes live with the family, but after grandma arrives, it becomes clear that caring for five kids is too much for her at her age and conflicts abound. 

Jody starts to think that a new wife for her dad will help to resolve the family’s problems. But does that mean she is forgetting her mother or doesn’t love her enough?

I found Meet the Moon because I’m still looking for books from small publishers. Fitzroy Books is the YA imprint of Regal House Publishing. (I reviewed and recommended another Regal House title, Girlz in the Hood.) I saw the blurb for Meet the Moon from Alice McDermott. And while I know that blurbs are sometimes favors to authors or publishers, I loved McDermott’s National Book Award-winning Charming Billy, so I thought I’d give Meet the Moon a try. 

Meet the Moon has an emotional depth that I appreciate in a YA novel. Each of the characters—all five children and their father—are well drawn individuals. Each has his or her own grief over the death of their mom/wife and uses their own coping mechanisms to deal with it. Jody is observant and a keen judge of character. 

High School Housekeeping

This would be a good addition to a library collection, a title to recommend to students who have lost a family member and to thoughtful students who contemplate big life issues.