Children’s book reviews: The pull of the Moon proves very strong for independent girls

The solitary nature of the Moon inspires one girl’s path to liberty and escape from the ‘cool gang’

Pet O’Connell rounds up a selection of books suitable for tots to teens

Sisters of the Moon by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (Faber & Faber, €10.99) 

“It’s just rubbish. Whatever happens, happens. You can’t stop it and you can’t make stuff happen either. Wishing is a big waste of time.” 

That was Suzy Button’s opinion when, as a snarly, mean, newly-turned teen, she contemptuously shot down her mother’s suggestion about manifesting her dreams by wishing on the Moon, an un-cool remnant of a childhood now behind her.

Now about to turn 16, almost everything about Suzy’s life has changed utterly. 

The first anniversary of her mother’s death finds Suzy and her father living in a new town, if his perpetual zombie-like state can actually be described as living.

Suzy has just spent the entire summer alone and is now about to return to the school where, since joining her new class the previous January, she has been alone in a crowd.

Wishing on the Moon, however foolish it may feel, now represents one way for Suzy to regain a sense of connection with her mother. 

Talking to the night sky, she expresses her fears about the fact that her periods have ceased, and wishes above all for a friend.

Just someone to hang around with, because in her new all-girls school, “being alone is pretty much the same as walking around naked”.

Despite her grandmothers’ opinion that a female-only school would best support Suzy as she grieves for her mother, the classroom atmosphere at Star of the Sea is in fact “about as cosy and supportive as swimming with a bunch of barracudas”. 

The scenes of social purgatory that define the school experience, in Ireland or anywhere else, for those not accepted by the ‘in’ crowd are perfectly observed.

Into this poisonous environment, however, walks another new girl, Rhiannon, whose arrival is like a breath of fresh air.

If she appears a little unusual, with her love of WB Yeats and tapestry-weaving, Suzy does not care, the most important thing being that Rhiannon fills the empty space beside her in the classroom and is eager to be her friend.

Exactly where Rhiannon has appeared from remains a mystery. She says she has lived in France, Wales, and Italy, yet if Suzy had to guess where she came from, it would be straight out of a Jane Austen novel. 

The details of her current address are vague, as are the reasons why she has never seen a mobile phone, has no school books, and wears her uniform when going out on a Saturday night.

For all of her eccentricities, Rhiannon is somehow able to inveigle herself, and Suzy, into the inner circle of the school mean girls, who normally chew up their classmates and spit them out for minor fashion transgressions. 

So little heed does Rhiannon pay to their social strictures, however, that her un-coolness is deemed a ‘retro statement’ and Suzy soon finds herself attending a beach party with the coolest of cool girls.

Having achieved peer acceptance, however, Suzy quickly recognises the shallowness of this society and realises she is not prepared to pay the price of its continued membership by becoming a “vapid, simpering suck-up”.

Lesson learned, her new-found confidence now enables Suzy to form real friendships, and as she spreads her wings socially, could there even be a hint of romance?

Though her inner ‘Sensible Suzy’ voice cautions against it, this summer of self-discovery sees her develop the courage to speak out against the mean girls and learn to take risks, while exploring her love of photography by night. One thing Suzy never discovers though, is who Rhiannon really is.

Bathed in moonlit magic, Dublin author Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick’s mystical tale binds readers in its spell, offering hope, even in the darkness of grief, that friendship and self-belief will light the way ahead.

Someone’s Been Messing with Reality by John Hearne (Little Island, €7.49)

“The most in-touch, tell-me-your-every-move, text-me-when-you-get-there parents on the planet have disappeared.” 

Martin, having waited many hours for his ultra-ordinary parents to return home, calls the police, who take down all the details. What Martin omits to tell them is that he has just discovered that his family are aliens.

It has taken video evidence of his dad flying unaided through the air, plus his friend Tina demonstrating how his entire life has been a lie, for Martin to accept that by implication, he too must be an alien.

This is already more information than a young person could reasonably process, and when Martin finds a cryptic note from his father, instructing him to send a signal, he is at a loss as to whether his parents were attempting to destroy or save planet Earth.

Establishing who the bad guys are becomes even more difficult when Martin and Tina are confronted with the fact that, since humans have been doing such a bad job as caretakers of the planet, with their pollution and plastic, they are about to be obliterated as a species by giant mutant killer insects.

These war bugs just happen to be pupating nearby in underground mines, and it’s up to Martin, Tina, and their friend Enda, with whom communication has been challenging since he suffered a brain injury in a fall, to save the world, even if it does not yet know it needs to be saved. 

Co Wexford-born author John Hearne plunges readers at break-neck speed into an adventure of epic proportions, featuring stolen police cars, explosions, plus a turtle-shaped paddling-pool fighter aircraft.

Reality has been well and truly messed with, and early teens with a love of action movies (including reluctant male readers) will enjoy the rollercoaster ride.

The Moth & The Moon by Margaret Anne Suggs (Beehive, €9.99)

The chrysalis in Margaret Anne Suggs’s picture book releases a far more benign insect than Hearne’s mutant bugs, the only threat posed by Rosie the moth being to her own safety as she bumbles into every shining light.

Moths are not everyone’s favourite creatures, precisely because of their night-time habit of whacking themselves into windows, lamps, and anyone who happens to be in the way.

One theory is that moths are attracted to the Moon, which they use for navigation, and become disorientated by artificial light, which causes them to alter their flight path.

In Rosie’s case, the attraction to the Moon is “love at first sight”, as she wriggles from her chrysalis and takes flight in order to get closer to its radiant glow.

Over several nights the Moon appears to Rosie to grow smaller so she sets out to track it down.

Just when she seems to be getting really close, with a “thunk” she slams hard into a bright light but alas, it’s not the Moon.

Again and again her hopes are dashed and her little body bashed, but with friendship and perseverance Rosie succeeds in tripping the light fantastic in this charmingly-illustrated tale.