The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

 

Title: The Girl Who Drank the Moon 

Genre: Fantasy Fiction 

Author: Kelly Barnhill 

Major Awards: 2017 Newbery Medal 

Age group: 10-14 years 

 

Summary: 

This novel was about a small town called the Protectorate and how every year they sacrificed the youngest baby of their town to the witch of the forest. They believed that by doing this, their town would be protected from the evil witch, but they were wrong. Xan, the forest witch, was a caring witch, who rescued the babies and took them to the Free Cities and gave them to good families to raise them. One year, she rescued a baby whom she later names Luna. She used to feed the babies starlight, but she accidentally feeds Luna moonlight, which filled the baby with magic. Xan decides to raise Luna and protect her from her magic by locking it up until she turns thirteen. 

At the end of the novel, Antain, a Protectorate citizen, tries to kill Luna as he mistakes her as the evil witch who “kills” the babies. They all discover that the evil witch who feeds on their sorrow is actually the Madwoman and who has created so much sadness in their town. Xan dies as her power transfers to Luna and the Madwoman also dies as she doesn’t have any more sorrow to feed. Luna is together with her mother once more and the Protectorate is a happy town.  

Evaluation: 

    Appropriate grade levels are 5^th to 9^th grade. I am not huge on fantasy stories, but I really enjoyed this novel. The entire story was filled with very detailed descriptions of the town and the characters, which help me feel like I was living in the story. I loved the ending of the story because I wasn’t left wondering what else happened, but I loved all the details and the way they explained what happened to the town. I don’t pursue to teach middle school grades but if that was the grade I was teaching I would definitely use this book. With all the details the novel gave, I would again use this novel for reading comprehension. I could definitely create a lesson plan where my students compare between characters, find out the themes the book talked about, and talk about the different settings of the book.