Book Review of Me and the Missouri Moon
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The Children’s Book Review
Me and the Missouri Moon
Written by Nancy Stewart
Ages: 8-12 | 186 Pages
Publisher: Monarch Educational Services (2024) | ISBN: 978-1-957656-66-3
What to Expect: Friendship, courage, car accidents, and Maya Angelou.
In this beautifully written middle-grade novel, readers will meet two young heroines who are brave, kind, and doing the best they can in a complex world.
Scarlet and Cricket are two girls who desperately need a friend. Cricket is new in town, friendless, and different from everyone else. She desperately misses her home in St Louis and is frightened for her brother, who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run. Scarlet has a father everyone in town hates—he can’t hold a job, is always fighting and getting in trouble, and rarely does anything to help his family. When Scarlet is assigned to be Cricket’s guide at school, the two girls find, to their surprise, that they’ve become friends. It’s more than Scarlet ever dared to hope for. The only problem? It’s Scarlet’s father who hit Cricket’s brother. Will Scarlet find the courage to do the right thing and hand her father in?
Scarlet is instantly likable, and the first-person narration sparkles with her strong personality. Although the story explores complex questions about family loyalty, bullying, poverty, and right and wrong, these characters help readers see hope and courage can be found in the darkest places. At the heart of the story is a message about forgiveness of those who do us wrong, even while they continue to do us wrong, not for their sake, but for our own. It is a powerful and crucial message for young people living in today’s world.
Me and the Missouri Moon is a poignant, moving, and deeply captivating—a book readers won’t want to put down until the very last page.
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About the Author
A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Nancy Stewart taught grade school and was a university professor of education, specializing in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. She was fortunate to have lived in London with her family for a number of years. Nancy has five published picture books, including One Pelican at a Time, which was featured in a PBS documentary. Her debut YA novel, Beulah Land, received First Place in the 2015 State of Florida Rising Kite Awards, through the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. The book was a finalist in the Forward Indies Book of the Year Awards. It was also one of the most anticipated books at Barnes & Noble in 2017.
A frequent speaker and presenter at writing conferences, Nancy conducts workshops, seminars, and school visits. A member of the Rate Your Story team, she critiques manuscripts for prospective authors. She, her husband, and their (adopted from the Missouri Ozarks) pup, Louie, live in Tampa, Florida.
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