The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Fantasy, Magic, Witches, Friendship, Courage, Newbery Medal

Age 11-14

Grade 6-9

400 pages

c. 2016

Each year the people of the Protectorate leave the youngest baby born in the forest to appease the wicked witch who lives there. This has happened for so long that the people have become resigned to it. However as the story opens this year’s young mother is willing to fight to keep her baby. In the end she loses the fight and becomes quite distraught.

            The truth is there is a wicked witch around but she is not in the forest. Xan, who lives in the forest, is a witch but she is gentle and kind and has been rescuing these babies for many years. She brings them to families on the other side of the forest. She feeds the babies starlight as they travel, but this time she accidently feeds the baby girl moonlight which fills her with extraordinary magic. Xan has been strangely attracted to the baby and now that she had been filled with magic Xan decided she needed to keep her. She named her Luna.

            Luna’s magic is truly extraordinary so Xan decides to lock it up inside her until she reaches the age of 13. Unfortunately Xan is not around when that happens but many other things are converging to make a very dangerous situation.

            This is an extremely well written book with many unusual and well developed characters. Xan lives with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a tiny Dragon named Fyrian who believes he is quite large. The characters from the Protectorate are also well drawn, some noble and good and some quite evil and wicked, but even the most wicked ones are shown to have some redeeming qualities, at least at one time in their history. There are interesting plot twist and much to think about in the different themes presented in the book. There are some potentially disquieting moments that deal with grief and death but not in a morbid or hopeless way and there is much humor sprinkled through the book as well.

            An especially interesting character is Sister Ignatia.

 Spoiler Alert: She is head of the sisterhood that spends their time learning many things but she is also the wicked witch who feeds off the sorrows of other people. She is the one who originated the story of a wicked witch in the forest who demanded the sacrifice of a newborn baby each year. She was not always this way. After losing her mother, father, sisters and brothers, her village and all her friends, all she had left was her sorrow and memories of sorrow. To cope she allowed her heart to turn hard and she became the “Sorrow Eater.” The book describes it this way, “there in the space where the Sorrow Eater’s heart should have been, was a tiny sphere, hard, shiny and cold. Over the years she had walled off her heart, again and again, making it smooth and bright and unfeeling.” …..”It was so hard and heavy and dense that it bent the light around it. It sucked everything inside, sorrow sucking sorrow. She turned hungry for it (sorrow). And the more she fed on it, the more she needed it.” Eventually she learned to turn her sorrow into magic. To keep her magic she continually needed to feed on other people’s sorrow. That is why she wanted to have a baby sacrificed each year. The people in the community lived under a fog of sorrow.

I don’t think the author intended this but it made me think about how some extremely pro-choice women may be dealing with their own pain from past abortions.