Sunday, April 29, 2012

Music from a Place Called Half Moon

I'll admit it. I picked this book up simply because of the title. When I got it home I was ecstatic to find that the author, Jerrie Oughton, lives right here in Lexington, proving once again that Kentucky is one creative state!

Music from a Place Called Half Moon is a great historical YA read. The story takes place in the summer of 1956 and centers around the small town of Half Moon, North Carolina.

While the point of view is first person, it reads like a narrative. Normally I find this style of writing frustrating. I love sensory. I literally want to be the protagonist, but this book is different. I was perfectly content to stand next to Edie Jo, listening to her sweet voice tell her tale. The story is powerful, and it reminds the reader that prejudice extends past the boundaries of black and white.

Here's the back cover:
That night I dreamed Cherokee Fish kissed me, on the mouth, tender. He leaned over top of me where I lay on the pine straw at the sawmill and kissed me, letting his body down slow till it weighed heavy on mine. The kiss lasted a long time. When I waked up, I knew I hadn't been born missing. That feeling wasn't meant for David King so it hadn't come. I began to understand it was meant for Cherokee Fish.

And, even though there was a whole part of me knowing that to be in love with an Indian boy would be beyond disaster, that not only my family, but every single person in Half Moon would hate me and feed their hate every morning of their lives, the feeling was still here. I just shut all those doors in my mind and lived in the rooms full of sunshine, full of Cherokee Fish.

The book was published in 1995, and when I looked on Amazon it didn't seem as if it was still in publication, but if you love YA historical fiction, it definitely is one worth seeing if the library has a copy!

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