I have recently read the book “Keeping the Moon”, a 240-page realistic fiction novel by Sarah Dessen, it was published on May 11, 2004. Through middle school, I have gotten my recommendations from my friends to read Sarah Dessen books. I finally decided to try it out and I’m happy I did. I decided on this book instead of the others because of the way the title sounded, Keeping the Moon, the words just flow together perfectly.

 

“Keeping the Moon” is about a 15-year-old girl named Colie who’s mother, Kiki Sparks a fitness guru touring Europe for the summer, is forcing her to spend the summer in Colby, North Carolina with her crazy aunt Mira. She expects the summer to be filled with absolute boredom and utter discomfort. What she doesn’t expect is to meet Morgan and Isabel. Meeting them changed Colie, she learned that true friendship and love do exist, and maybe, just maybe, she could find it in herself to try and have a first chance at love.

 

I didn’t understand why Kiki, Colie’s mother, had to be so distant from Colie. She had been through so much with Colie that it didn’t make sense for her to just forget about it when things got better. Her new reputation and ego were taking over, to Colie, it was all about Kiki Sparks, staying skinny, and forgetting about the fat years, but what if Colie didn’t want to forget? If I was the author I would have made Isabel and her “relationships” more in depth for the readers. All we really knew was that she “dated” a few guys and dumped them in the next few days. We also didn’t know that much about Isabel’s past and I would have like to learn more about it. I liked how the author really applied Colie’s thoughts to her actions, that’s what applying the internal and external story means. The author did it very well and never left you confused (in a bad way at least…).

 

This passage is from one of the first pages in the book, Colie is leaving her mother to get on the train, she is holding back what she wants to say,  “‘I love you,’ she whispered as we walked towards the train. Then take me with you i thought, but she was already pulling back, wiping her eyes, and I knew if I said it the words would fall between us and just lie there, causing more trouble than they were worth.” (page 3)

I liked this passage because the author showed how Colie thinks about her actions, and how different her relationship with her mother has changed from the fat years to that day.

 

I would rate this book a 8 out of 10 because I really enjoyed it and it was a really interesting and relatable book to read.

Sincerely,

Alex H.