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Awards
A Best Book for Young Adults 2008
2007 Colorado Book Award Winner
2008-2009 Texas Lonestar List Book, Texas Library Association.
2007 Arizona Young Adult Book Award Winner, Arizona Library Association
Maine Student Award List, 2007-2008
Américas Award Honorable Mention, 2007
Colorado Authors' League Award 2007
New York Book for the Teen Age 2007
Volunteer State Book Award Master List 2008-2009
Booklist Top 10 First Novels for Youth of 2006
Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Youth 2006
A Parents' Choice Recommendation
School Library Journal Pick of the Week, Aug. 28, 2006
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Reviews and Recognition
Starred Review from School Library Journal:
The exquisitely crafted narrative includes Clara's first-person impressions and descriptions interspersed with chapters of her grandmother's story. The characters are well developed, each with a fully formed backstory. Resau does an exceptional job of portraying the agricultural society sympathetically and realistically, naturally integrating Spanish words and phrases in Mixteco into the plot without distracting from it. The atmosphere is mystical and dreamlike, yet energetic. Readers will relish Clara's adventures in Mexico, as well as her budding romance with Pedro. This distinguished novel will be a great addition to any collection.
Starred Review from Kirkus:
... Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here.
Starred Review from Booklist:
... [A] deeply felt, lyrical debut ... in poetic, memorable language, Resau offers a rare glimpse into an indigenous culture, grounding her story in the universal questions and conflicts of a young teen. Readers who enjoyed Ann Cameron's Colibrí, will find themselves equally swept up in this powerful, magical story, and they'll feel, along with Clara, "the spiderweb's threads, connecting me to people miles and years away."
Online and Newspaper Reviews
A classic waiting to happen.
"Author's Mexican odyssey a spiritual awakening", in The Royal Gazette 10/27/06
A lyrical coming-of-age novel.
"Search for roots leads young girl to rich revelations" in The Flint Journal 12/10/06
Full of lush, poetic writing, and an authentic adolescent voice.
I can't express how much I adored this novel.
About What the Moon Saw
Clara Luna's name means 'clear moon' in Spanish. But lately, her head has felt anything but clear. One day a letter comes from Mexico, written in Spanish: Dear Clara, We invite you to our house for the summer. We will wait for you on the day of the full moon, in June, at the Oaxaca airport. Love, your grandparents.
Fourteen-year-old Clara has never met her father's parents. She knows her father snuck over the border from Mexico when he was a teenager, but beyond that, she knows almost nothing about his childhood. When she agrees to go, she's stunned by her grandparents' life: they live in a simple shack in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but an indigenous language, Mixteco.
The village of Yucuyoo holds other surprises, too-- like the spirit waterfall, which is heard but never seen. And Pedro, an intriguing young goat herder who wants to help Clara find the waterfall. Hearing her grandmother's adventurous tales of growing up as a healer awakens Clara to the magic in Yucuyoo, and in her own soul. What The Moon Saw is an enchanting story of discovering your true self in the most unexpected place.
Ages 10 & up, Delacorte/ Random House. Hardcover and Paperback available now.
Excerpt from What the Moon Saw
Prologue:
The moonlight pierces through the girl's open window onto her eyelids, keeping her awake. Other people close their blinds, shut their windows tight, seal themselves in their air-conditioned worlds. But this girl wants the night to come into her room. She wants the expanse of sky to fill her.
She tiptoes downstairs, slips out the sliding glass door, and walks to the edge of the yard, surveying the stretch of identical houses as far as she can see. They look like flat cardboard cut-outs, scenery for a play - the fake shutters that won't close, the carefully landscaped yards with perfectly rectangular bushes.
What is real? she wonders. There is something more real than this, something deeper. When she holds very still she feels it in the wind - a whisper, a song, a low drumbeat. Sometimes she wants to scream, to dance wildly, to run and run until she gets to the edge and takes a leap into what is real.
My Inspiration for What the Moon Saw
Staying with families in Mixtec and Mazatec communities has been incredibly exciting for me. I love participating in their everyday lives and learning about their thoughts on spirituality and healing. I hold a deep admiration for the older women in these communities, whose work never ends. Many are herbalists, midwives, and curers; they hold their families together, possess curiosity and wisdom, and are always ready to throw their heads back in laughter. Many women have heroically overcome the obstacles in their lives' racism, poverty, domestic violence, forced marriages, lack of formal education. These women's struggles and triumphs inspired the character of Helena in What the Moon Saw.
Pedro's character grew out of a certain sadness and sense of abandonment that I've noticed in Oaxacan villages. Many young people, especially young men, have moved away - either to Mexico City or to the U.S. - to try to provide a better life for their families. I've met many kids whose fathers are working in Chicago as dishwashers, in Washington state picking apples, or in North Carolina in the logging industry, to name just a few places. Some kids haven't seen their fathers for years. Some have never met their fathers because they left to work shortly before their child was born; these kids know their fathers only through videos and phone calls and photos. Some kids live with their grandparents because both their mother and father are working in the U.S.
Clara's spiritual journey was sparked by a sense of restlessness I had as a teenager, a feeling that there was something deeper, beneath the surface of life. Her search for identity as part of a multi-ethnic family in the 'burbs is something several people close to me have experienced-- my adopted Korean brother, my half-German husband, my half-Thai cousin, and my half-Puerto Rican neighbor (who I had a huge crush on in middle school).
Clara's father's struggle became clearer to me as I listened to the feelings of my friends and ESL students here in Colorado who are working in the U.S. to support their families in Latin America. It's a huge challenge for them to build a life here while maintaining strong connections to the families and communities they left behind.
For more articles, interviews, and reviews, please see the sidebar of Laura's blog.