Sent to stay with her eccentric aunt in a beach town, a lonely girl finds friendship and confidence working as a waitress
A summer of new friends
Fifteen-year-old Colie has spent years as an outsider. She used to be heavy, and even after her mother became a famous fitness guru and Colie lost the weight, the teasing never stopped, and an ugly rumour followed her through school. Now her mother is on a European tour, and Colie is sent to spend the summer with her Aunt Mira, an eccentric artist in a small North Carolina beach town who does not care what anyone thinks.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about thirteen and up who enjoy warm summer stories about friendship and learning to see yourself differently.
What you will get
A warm, perceptive summer novel about a lonely girl who finds real friends and new confidence while waitressing in a small beach town.
Keeping the Moon Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Young Adult · Summer · Friendship · Self-confidence
Length
228 pages · ≈ 7 h
More about this book
Short, warm and quietly perceptive, Keeping the Moon is one of Dessen's most comforting books. Colie arrives in town wearing black and a wall of defensiveness, convinced that everyone is judging her. She takes a job at the Last Chance Café, where two older waitresses, the glamorous Isabel and the kind-hearted Morgan, are best friends with problems of their own. After a prickly start, they take Colie under their wing.
Dessen captures the feel of a small-town summer perfectly: diner shifts, late-night conversations, the heat and the ocean. Aunt Mira, an independent woman who is mocked by the town and does not care, becomes a model for Colie. There is also a gentle romance with Norman, a young artist who lives in Mira's house and wants to paint Colie's portrait. The book treats body image and bullying with honesty and compassion, without lecturing.
It is lighter and shorter than some of Dessen's later novels, and a lovely place to start. Many readers say it is the Dessen novel they reread most often, and it is easy to see why: it feels like a summer friendship in book form. About 228 pages in the Speak paperback.
The Truth About Forever
Along for the Ride
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Since You've Been Gone
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Someone Like You
The Raven King
This Lullaby
Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Bridge to Terabithia
Lock and Key