MG Fantasy: A Nearer Moon by Melanie Crowder

Published by: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
on  September 8th 2015
Genres: Fantasy
Pages:  160
Format: Hardcover
Source:  Library

A Nearer Moon is set in a world where magic and faerie's were once plentiful and the water was crystal clear.   Luna lives in a village perched high up on stilts, with a terrible murky cursed swamp below. A curse that if any of the swamp water enters your mouth leaves you suffering from a terrible wasting sickness, one that leaves you with only three weeks left to live.  Unfortunately, it is a fate that falls on Luna's younger sister Willow.  Determined to help her sister, Luna breaks mama's three rules (never go past the river bend, don't go below the dam and steer away from the slick) and sets off to try and find a way to cure her sister.  At the same time, its a story about how "as human's grew, the fairies begin to ebb".  Where two water sprite sister's,  Perdita (Perdy) and Pergia (Gia) become separated when Perdy doesn't make it through a magical door.  Separated from her sister, Perdy becomes wrapped up in her feelings of grief and remorse for not staying closer to her sister before the door closed.   Crowder blends the story of these two sets of siblings beautifully together through the alternating chapters of  Luna and Perdita.    I love the bond that the two sets of sister's share with one another and the way Luna describes Willow, "she was the sun that the rest of them orbited around.  Maybe because she was all giggles and mischief, dewey kisses and unkempt braids."  Doesn't she just sound adorable? I also really enjoyed the way that Crowder described the village and the distinctions that she made between the way that the village was prior to the swamp appearing, it gives the swamp this menacing feel.  Most of all, I loved that moment when I  finally realized the way in which the two stories intertwined. 


  A Nearer Moon has been nominated for the Cybils award and my review reflects my personal opinion, not the opinion of the Cybils committee.