This is one of our small group book choices for our 6th grade theme SOCIAL INJUSTICE in September. Thirteen-year-old Clare is hurting from her mother's death, and now her father has dragged her to Africa where he'll be working in a local hospital, and she'll be attending the village school. She is furious with her father and just wants to be home. When they arrive in Malawi, she is greeted by a large monkey drinking a Coke. This is just the beginning of feeling like a fish out of water. However, through her friendship with Memory, a tragedy involving Memory's brother, and teaching English and theater to the young students at Mzanga Full Primary School, she discovers "home" can be found in the African jungle. I loved the parts that describe Clare teaching English to the young children - she uses a lot ideas that we used when teaching at the English camp in our recent trip to Czech Republic (Simon Says, bingo cards, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and hokey-pokey), and I remember sweating like she did on the first day!! Clare Silver lost her mother recently. So now she is yanked out of her town etc. to go with her father on a trip to Malawi and into the jungle from there. She can't keep in touch with her friends because there aren't any towers close enough to make international calls. Once there she meets Memory and she knew right off that they would be friends. Clare attended school at Mzanga Full Primary School and was struggling to learn the language. In the school they sat on the floor so she tried to sit close to Memory. As they talked, they learned about each other but Clare still wasn't happy. When the teacher from the lower grades leaves, Clare is asked to fill in to help the students learn English until a replacement is hired. The first day she went to teach she found out there were 120 students in that group! But she learned to teach them some games and then some songs. Clare also gets to know Innocent, Memory's little brother, and Saidi, a classmate. At one point a storm hits the school and she is separated from her friends during it. These same friends decide to take her on a special trip to the ocean to ride in a boat. It is just a one-day trip but things go horribly wrong. As they are out on the boat, Innocent becomes ill. They race for shore and Clare ends up "borrowing" two motorbikes to try and get Innocent to the hospital where her father works. Through everything they do get him there but he doesn't survive. Clare knew that Memory had lost her mother but didn't know that Innocent was all she had left of her family. She watched and talked to Memory about it so she could learn how to 'Laugh with the moon'. Memory helped her learn how to deal with death. Clare still remembered things her mother had said and taught her and even saw her at times but she finally adjusted to the death of her mother and the memories she would always carry of happy times with her. Clare and her father became much closer as Clare accepted her mother's death.Definitely a girl's book for dealing with a very real issue.
Do You like book Laugh With The Moon (2012)?
I think this is the best book I read this year.
—Mele
