Moonflower

by Kacen Callender

Overview

Kacen Callender, National Book Award winner of King and the Dragonflies, delivers a stunning novel that invites readers into a child’s struggles with mental health, and their journey to wholeness.

Moon’s depression is overwhelming. Therapy doesn’t help, and Moon is afraid that their mom hates them because they’re sad. Moon’s only escape is traveling to the spirit realms every night, where they hope they’ll never return to the world of the living again.

The spirit realm is where they have their one and only friend, Wolf, and where they’re excited to experience an infinite number of adventures. But when the realm is threatened, it’s up to Moon to save the spirit world.

With the help of celestial beings and guard­ians, Moon battles monsters and shadows, and through their journey, they begin to learn that a magical adventure of love and acceptance awaits them in the world of the living, too.

This story of hope shows readers that our souls blossom when we realize that we are as worthy and powerful as the universe itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338636598
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	78,033
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	730L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kacen Callender is a bestselling and award-winning author of multiple novels for children, teens, and adults, including King and the Dragonflies, winner of the National Book Award, Coretta Scott King Honor and Lambda Literary Award and Hurricane Child, winner of the Lambda Literary Award and Stonewall Honor Award, and the bestselling novel Felix Ever After. They live in US Virgin Islands.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/18/2022

National Book Award winner Callender (King and the Dragonflies) tells the emotionally harrowing story of Moon, a Black nonbinary 12-year-old who astral-projects into another realm each night, escaping a life threatened by prejudice in a world altered by an unnamed disease. Life among the living is unbearable for depressed Moon, who no longer speaks, feels unloved by their concerned but uncomprehending parent, and often wishes for death. Regularly visiting a spirit world comprising beings from many cultures and time periods, Moon is there tethered to life by a golden ankle chain that also prohibits visiting other realms. After accepting an impossible offer from the world’s Keeper, Moon undertakes a potentially disastrous mission that teaches what it is to experience love and to feel free. Interstitials develop the story of a child named Blue, born among the stars but raised on the ground. Burrowing to the marrow of what it means to be marginalized and depressed, dreamlike first-person text adroitly juxtaposes Moon’s feelings of unbelonging with an abundant possibility of love, both self-directed and external. A rousing central character, Moon is vulnerable in the face of pain, loving despite disappointment, and determined to make their own choices in a novel that emphasizes how “you’re so loved, even if you can’t see it.” Ages 8– 12. Agent: Beth Phelan, Gallt and Zacker Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for King and the Dragonflies:

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature!

Winner of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry!

*"[A] dynamic tale that will resonate with children struggling to reconcile who they are with what they think society wants them to be."-Booklist, starred review

*"Callender tackles some serious issues...with finesse and a heady sense of the passions and pangs of youth...this title solidifies Callender's merit as a powerful middle grade and YA author... An intense, gripping tale of love, loss, and friendship featuring a black youth grappling with his dreams and his identity."-School Library Journal, starred review

*"Callender masterfully balances resonant themes of grief, love, family, friendship, racism, sexuality, and coming-of-age...deeply affecting, memorable."-The Horn Book, starred review

*"[A] powerful tale of grief, intersectional identity, and love."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"From the opening sentence, King and the Dragonflies sings the complications of loving and caring for imperfect and wounded people. Callender sets us deep into King's mind and life, and never lets go of the reins. They don't pull punches...and thank goodness for that!"-Alex Gino, the Stonewall and Lambda Literary Award-winning author of George

"This sensitive and powerful story speaks to any reader trying to find the courage to be themselves in a complicated world. King's heartbreaking, beautiful, and ultimately hopeful journey helps him come to terms with family loss and his own complex identity."-Veera Hiranandani, Newbery Honor Award Winning author of The Night Diary

"Young readers will find friends and allies aplenty in Kacen Callender's vital novel, King and the Dragonflies, which flutters with life, love, loss, and resilience, a story as iridescent and complex as a dragonfly's wings."-Alex London, author of Proxy and Black Wings Beating

"King and the Dragonflies is a lyrical coming of age tale about grief, friendship, family, belonging, identity, and hope. I honestly could not put this book down. This is a story that will stay with you long after you finish reading."-Aisha Saeed, New York Times bestselling author of Amal Unbound

Praise for Hurricane Child:

* "Lush descriptions bring the Caribbean environment to vivid life...An excellent and nuanced coming-of-age tale."-School Library Journal, starred review

* "Set against the richly evoked backdrop of the Caribbean, Callender's novel captures the exquisite agony and pain that accompanies rejection and abandonment. Caroline's search for answers provides a steady through line for the story, but it's the deeper questioning and reflection that set this book apart.... Visceral, pensive, and memorable." -Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 12/01/2022

Gr 4–7—Moonflower wants to be happy, but it feels an impossible when so many hate them without even knowing them. It is only when Moonflower journeys outside their body to the spirit world at night that they find peace. The spirit world houses their best friend and protector Wolf, as well as a tantalizing promise of a way out from all of Moonflower's pain and suffering. But when Moonflower makes a mistake, all things and creatures they love are threatened with destruction. In a tale that is a nuanced blend of otherworldly fantasy with the realistic inner struggles of mental illness, Moonflower's sorrows and triumphs will have readers weeping and cheering along. VERDICT Callender's latest is a powerful journey, teaching true self-love and acceptance in a way that is directly accessible for young readers. Highly recommended for purchase.—Emily Beasley

School Library Journal