Talking to the Moon

Description

Talking to the Moon

S.E. Durrant

(Nosy Crow)

Mason laughs at the way that Iris’s grandmother, Mimi, insists upon Talking to the Moon. However, it’s rather like the way Iris talks to the seagull on the roof, Iris considers. Iris is staying with Mimi who lives next door to Mason, Iris’s ‘not a friend’. At home, there’s chaos as Dad attends to the mould and the twins, while there’s a certainty in Mimi’s confusion. Or is there? While Mimi has always been rather eccentric, with her little dances and cold sea swimming, there’s something more. Iris keeps a list of advice for Mimi, such as ‘The girl who is sleeping in the next-door bedroom is called Iris. She is your granddaughter. Rena is Iris’s mum (your daughter). Iris doesn’t like jam on her eggs.‘

While Mason laughs at Mimi’s confusion, Iris is defensive and concerned. She covers up to her family and her ‘not-a-friend’. Thereafter, Iris hopes through her notes and attention that Mimi will not be discovered. After all, Lee and Dan across the road, and Iris, can cope with this, can’t they? Then there’s Coral, the long lost baby sister Iris rediscovers at the museum. What is her story and that of the bracelet matching Mimi’s that appears at Mason’s mother’s friend’s sweetshop?

S.E. Durrant, is the highly acclaimed writer of Running on Empty and Little Bits of Sky. Somehow, she creates believable situations, settings and characters. We feel the creeping chill of fear about Mimi’s behaviour, alongside the advance of a Brighton seaside autumn. Talking to the Moon is a highly empathetic, mature and thoughtful title that Bookwagon loves and recommends.