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Laugh with the Moon
Thirteen-year-old Clare Silver is stuck. Stuck in grief over her mother’s recent death. Stuck in the African jungle for sixty-four days without phone reception. Stuck with her father, a doctor who seems able to heal everyone but Clare.
Clare feels like a fish out of water at Mzanga Full Primary School. Soon, though, she becomes immersed in her new surroundings and impressed with her fellow students, who are crowded into a tiny space, working on the floor among roosters and centipedes.
When Clare’s new friends take her on an outing to a lake, the trip goes horribly wrong, and Clare must face another heartbreak head-on. Only an orphan named Memory, who knows about love and loss, can teach Clare how to laugh with the moon.
Clare feels like a fish out of water at Mzanga Full Primary School. Soon, though, she becomes immersed in her new surroundings and impressed with her fellow students, who are crowded into a tiny space, working on the floor among roosters and centipedes.
When Clare’s new friends take her on an outing to a lake, the trip goes horribly wrong, and Clare must face another heartbreak head-on. Only an orphan named Memory, who knows about love and loss, can teach Clare how to laugh with the moon.
245 pages, Hardcover
First published June 12, 2012
36 people are currently reading
1165 people want to read
About the author
Shana Burg
7 books21 followersI got a job teaching sixth grade at the same elementary school that President John F. Kennedy attended, and organized my wedding in between writing lesson plans and correcting homework. I married Oren in the summer. Little did Oren know at the time that he wasn’t just marrying me—but all the characters from A Thousand Never Evers who lived in my head. Lucky for me, Oren has grown to love Addie Ann, Elias, Uncle Bump, Mama, and Mrs. Jacks as much as I do.
After my fifth year of teaching, I gave birth to my son. Shortly after he was born, I found an agent, sold A Thousand Never Evers, and moved with my family from Boston to Austin, Texas, where I’m currently working on my next book.
After my fifth year of teaching, I gave birth to my son. Shortly after he was born, I found an agent, sold A Thousand Never Evers, and moved with my family from Boston to Austin, Texas, where I’m currently working on my next book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
February 21, 2021
For the Read the World 21 challenge, this month focusing on South and East Africa, I have focused on countries I had not read books from yet. I came across this middle reader novel set in Malawi. It is more of an outsider view as the main character, Clare, is a white American who travels with her father who is in Malawi to work as a doctor for nine weeks. He has a history there and friends in the village. Clare has recently lost her mother and is struggling.
I prefer ownvoices reads but the benefit of an outsider view novel for kids can be the bridge between two cultures. The author had two readers in Malawi checking for cultural accuracy, and visited herself to study the education system, which figures pretty heavily into the novel.
It took me back to my childhood in a sideways way, when my mom coordinated missions at the church I grew up in and I had a very good friend and penpal who lived in Kenya with her missionary parents. Much of the day to day stuff including the food sounds similar to her experience, although she did attend a boarding school as she got older.
I prefer ownvoices reads but the benefit of an outsider view novel for kids can be the bridge between two cultures. The author had two readers in Malawi checking for cultural accuracy, and visited herself to study the education system, which figures pretty heavily into the novel.
It took me back to my childhood in a sideways way, when my mom coordinated missions at the church I grew up in and I had a very good friend and penpal who lived in Kenya with her missionary parents. Much of the day to day stuff including the food sounds similar to her experience, although she did attend a boarding school as she got older.
April 12, 2014
I would give this 2.5 stars. I approached this book with a little bit of lethargy because I get sick of books about Americans going to foreign countries and realizing how wonderful they are and how spoiled we are. This might be true, to some degree, but it is tiresome and predictable.
This book follows Clare, a 13 year old girl, and her father who spend some time in Malawi after the tragic death of Clare's mother. He is a doctor and works at a clinic and she attends school. Initially Clare is furious with her dad for dragging her to this country while she is still grieving for her mom.
The character development of the Malawi children and teachers are quite good and I found myself, despite my initial misgivings, enjoying the tale. There is a death of a student in the book that is very horrifying and moving and I think would make a big impact on children that read it.
The book tends to drag a bit towards the middle. There are only so many "animal scares" that one can read about and Clare's visions of her mother feel contrived.
For children who like reading about travel and foregin adventures, this would be an easy sell. Definitely more girl appeal than boy and could be a hit as a read-aloud in the classroom.
This book follows Clare, a 13 year old girl, and her father who spend some time in Malawi after the tragic death of Clare's mother. He is a doctor and works at a clinic and she attends school. Initially Clare is furious with her dad for dragging her to this country while she is still grieving for her mom.
The character development of the Malawi children and teachers are quite good and I found myself, despite my initial misgivings, enjoying the tale. There is a death of a student in the book that is very horrifying and moving and I think would make a big impact on children that read it.
The book tends to drag a bit towards the middle. There are only so many "animal scares" that one can read about and Clare's visions of her mother feel contrived.
For children who like reading about travel and foregin adventures, this would be an easy sell. Definitely more girl appeal than boy and could be a hit as a read-aloud in the classroom.
July 31, 2012
Powerful book that fills us with an important level of awareness about life in other countries. Taken place in current day life with smart boards, cell phones, and state testing, the character's life is uplifted to Africa with her father who is a doctor. Although she absolutely dreaded going to Africa in the beginning, her thinking, beliefs, and mindset transformed through her experiences with the people living in the villages.
A must read book!
A must read book!
August 13, 2012
I described this book to a co-worker as "Bummer, bummer, bummer, sappy, sappy, sappy," but that's probably too harsh. Author Shana Burg is a decent writer and the story has some interesting parts. I liked the pidgin English spoken by the Malawian characters (when I was in Namibia we called their version of English "Namblish"), the details of life in the Malawi bush, and the friendship that forms between Clare, a 13-year-old American girl and Memory, a her new classmate in Malawi.
But the bummers are piled high in this book. Clare's mom is recently deceased and Clare aches from the loss. Both of Memory's parents have died. And that's just the deaths you get up front. There are more in the story. We are often in Clare's head and she struggles to overcome the pain of her mother's absence. Harsh. Angsty. Emo.
And then the conclusion. It wasn't overly contrived or convenient, but it was heavy with lessons learned and feel-good-ness.
So, if you're in the mood for a quiet read about a sad white girl discovering Africa, this will fit the bill. Not especially recommended otherwise.
But the bummers are piled high in this book. Clare's mom is recently deceased and Clare aches from the loss. Both of Memory's parents have died. And that's just the deaths you get up front. There are more in the story. We are often in Clare's head and she struggles to overcome the pain of her mother's absence. Harsh. Angsty. Emo.
And then the conclusion. It wasn't overly contrived or convenient, but it was heavy with lessons learned and feel-good-ness.
So, if you're in the mood for a quiet read about a sad white girl discovering Africa, this will fit the bill. Not especially recommended otherwise.
January 31, 2012
This book was amazing! I loved it from the start. I could not put it down once I started. I just recently traveled to Tanzania and so many memories were brought back while I was reading this book. It is a wonderful story about a girl named Clare who is made to move with her dad to Malawi for three months while he works as a missionary doctor. She is completely opposed to it in the beginning and is trying to fight the reality of being there as she is also dealing with the loss of her mother. The story continues with her life and journey in her time in Malawi as she learns more about herself, life in Malawi and how to deal with the loss of her mother. This book gives you a true picture of what life is really like in Africa. It made me happy and laugh, but it also made me sad and cry a few times. It is a must read for everyone!
October 10, 2013
This author is visiting our school next week. Excited to hear her speak about the book and her experiences.
Read
May 25, 2018 I was looking for a book to read and I saw this one, Laugh With the Moon, by Shana Burg. Like a lot of the other books that I have read, I checked it out at my school library. Immediately, I started reading this book.
Clare Silver is a thirteen-year-old girl whose mother recently died of a heart attack. Clare and her father move to Malawi, Africa, for sixty-four days, where her father is a volunteer doctor. Clare is enrolled in Mzanga Full Primary School, where Clare helps as an assistant teacher for one of the younger grades. One of her students, Innocent, who is a close friend, passes away from malaria, leaving his older, orphaned, sister, Memory, all alone. Memory helps Clare learn the Chichewa language and the ways to do things such as cooking and ways to improve her teachings, by using stems of plants to write. At the end of the story, Clare moves back home, missing her new friends.
I really liked this book because it showed the importance of family and friendship. I thought that this book was really interesting and I enjoyed reading it.
Clare Silver is a thirteen-year-old girl whose mother recently died of a heart attack. Clare and her father move to Malawi, Africa, for sixty-four days, where her father is a volunteer doctor. Clare is enrolled in Mzanga Full Primary School, where Clare helps as an assistant teacher for one of the younger grades. One of her students, Innocent, who is a close friend, passes away from malaria, leaving his older, orphaned, sister, Memory, all alone. Memory helps Clare learn the Chichewa language and the ways to do things such as cooking and ways to improve her teachings, by using stems of plants to write. At the end of the story, Clare moves back home, missing her new friends.
I really liked this book because it showed the importance of family and friendship. I thought that this book was really interesting and I enjoyed reading it.
April 23, 2014
This is a lovely book - with themes that really touch the heart. While it does move very quickly through the story (probably a little too fast to be believable at times), that fact actually helped keep my attention. While this certainly isn't for every young adult reader (definitely more for female readers who like realistic fiction), it's refreshing and thoughtful.
September 7, 2013
Slow. Couldn't get into it.
April 25, 2012
Shana Burg's Laugh with the Moon is such a complex yet simple book that packs a hefty emotional punch. (I cried while reading the last fourth of the book; and, a month later, I still get emotional just thinking about writing this review.) Before I write what may sound like criticisms (but are not!) I want to put what I will say into context. Have you ever had someone tell you a story about a "friend?" A story about something so bad or sad or hard that the insulation of the "friend" was required, even though you both knew the story was really about them? Laugh with the Moon is a little like that story. You see, it isn't really fiction at all. Burg tackles some very harsh realities about Malawi. She spent years learning about these realities, and then even more crafting a story in which she could communicate them. Burg has some very specific issues that she wants to discuss, and it leaves her characters feeling less like actual people and more like symbolic representations of groups of people. She manipulates them to tell her story, but they never feel like puppets; she uses them to speak with her voice, but they never become her megaphone. They have nuance even while feeling a little flat. The insulation was needed to tell this story in a middle grade novel. (I am a 28 year old woman and I needed it!)
Laugh with the Moon deals with death, dying, illness, and grief, but it is always full of life. Burg not only shows how different cultures celebrate life and death, but also how people within those cultures deal with it differently. It is a frank look at loss, but it remains ever hopeful. (I didn't read the Author's Note until I finished, which just elevated my already very high opinion of her. Three different people who were her friends and helped make this book possible died before it was published; also before they were 40 years old. Shana Burg is an amazingly hopeful and optimistic woman.)
Burg also very subtly but effectively takes on the idea of privilege. Laugh with the Moon begins with Clare donning her mantle of privilege as carelessly and obliviously as one slips into flip-flops on the beach: Throwing an anti-Malaria pill away because it has fell to the floor, regularly chugging bottled water in front of people who have only had it once or twice in their lives, or causally using - then giving away - pens in front of students who have never had formal school supplies. As the story progresses, though, she becomes more aware of her privilege, and how unjust that privilege really is. Each one of her friends is instrumental in different ways to her achievement of this awareness. I particularly like how Burg uses Memory and Agnes as foils - the extremes of how Malawians might react to an American such as Clare. Memory loves and accepts Clare as she is, overlooking Clare's thoughtless acts because she knows they are unintentional. Agnes, however, calls her out at every turn - forces her to face it. It would be easy - and is often done - to make Agnes the 'mean' or 'bad' character, but she isn't. Agnes, too, becomes a friend, once Clare sees why Agnes treats her the way she does. Innocent shows her the value of the pills she so casually took; a child who dies for lack of a medicine that costs .28 USD per pediatric dose* or a mosquito net that costs $3.00 USD.** Saidi shows her the value of the education she took for granted; he cannot move into high school for lack of the less than $1.00 USD*** a year it would cost, and leaves primary school early because he cannot afford a suitable uniform.
These two issues, then, are the soul of why Shana Burg wrote Laugh with the Moon: access to adequate medical attention and access to an adequate education. It is hard to pull these issues out of the book because they are so deeply woven into the fabric of every single scene. The reality of what Malawians face is right there under the surface of the story; the fabric on which it is constructed. And, much like her characters Memory and Agnes, Burg by turns coaxes the reader and forces the reader to confront our privilege. The stark contrast between the private schools that children of white missionaries and doctors attend from that of the local village children is heartbreaking. The unutterable decadence of the fully equipped hospital Clare receives treatment in compared to the hot cave of a room that Innocent dies in is tragic. It is impossible to read Laugh with the Moon and remain unmoved. But it is a movement into action; a feeling of hope rather than despair. We can, and should, do something to change this.
For a list of ways you can help stop Malaria, check out the review on my blog Chronicles of a Book Evangelist; a review copy was provided by the publisher.
________________________________________________________________
*http://www.malariajournal.com/content...
** http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/m...
*** From Laugh with the Moon
Laugh with the Moon deals with death, dying, illness, and grief, but it is always full of life. Burg not only shows how different cultures celebrate life and death, but also how people within those cultures deal with it differently. It is a frank look at loss, but it remains ever hopeful. (I didn't read the Author's Note until I finished, which just elevated my already very high opinion of her. Three different people who were her friends and helped make this book possible died before it was published; also before they were 40 years old. Shana Burg is an amazingly hopeful and optimistic woman.)
Burg also very subtly but effectively takes on the idea of privilege. Laugh with the Moon begins with Clare donning her mantle of privilege as carelessly and obliviously as one slips into flip-flops on the beach: Throwing an anti-Malaria pill away because it has fell to the floor, regularly chugging bottled water in front of people who have only had it once or twice in their lives, or causally using - then giving away - pens in front of students who have never had formal school supplies. As the story progresses, though, she becomes more aware of her privilege, and how unjust that privilege really is. Each one of her friends is instrumental in different ways to her achievement of this awareness. I particularly like how Burg uses Memory and Agnes as foils - the extremes of how Malawians might react to an American such as Clare. Memory loves and accepts Clare as she is, overlooking Clare's thoughtless acts because she knows they are unintentional. Agnes, however, calls her out at every turn - forces her to face it. It would be easy - and is often done - to make Agnes the 'mean' or 'bad' character, but she isn't. Agnes, too, becomes a friend, once Clare sees why Agnes treats her the way she does. Innocent shows her the value of the pills she so casually took; a child who dies for lack of a medicine that costs .28 USD per pediatric dose* or a mosquito net that costs $3.00 USD.** Saidi shows her the value of the education she took for granted; he cannot move into high school for lack of the less than $1.00 USD*** a year it would cost, and leaves primary school early because he cannot afford a suitable uniform.
These two issues, then, are the soul of why Shana Burg wrote Laugh with the Moon: access to adequate medical attention and access to an adequate education. It is hard to pull these issues out of the book because they are so deeply woven into the fabric of every single scene. The reality of what Malawians face is right there under the surface of the story; the fabric on which it is constructed. And, much like her characters Memory and Agnes, Burg by turns coaxes the reader and forces the reader to confront our privilege. The stark contrast between the private schools that children of white missionaries and doctors attend from that of the local village children is heartbreaking. The unutterable decadence of the fully equipped hospital Clare receives treatment in compared to the hot cave of a room that Innocent dies in is tragic. It is impossible to read Laugh with the Moon and remain unmoved. But it is a movement into action; a feeling of hope rather than despair. We can, and should, do something to change this.
For a list of ways you can help stop Malaria, check out the review on my blog Chronicles of a Book Evangelist; a review copy was provided by the publisher.
________________________________________________________________
*http://www.malariajournal.com/content...
** http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/m...
*** From Laugh with the Moon
October 17, 2012
From the Publisher:
Thirteen-year-old Clare Silver is stuck. Stuck in denial about her mother's recent death. Stuck in the African jungle for sixty-four days without phone reception. Stuck with her father, a doctor who seems able to heal everyone but Clare.
Clare feels like a fish out of water at Mzanga Full Primary School, where she must learn a new language. Soon, though, she becomes immersed in her new surroundings and impressed with her fellow students, who are crowded into a tiny space, working on the floor among roosters and centipedes.
When Clare's new friends take her on an outing to see the country, the trip goes horribly wrong, and Clare must face another heartbreak head-on. Only an orphan named Memory, who knows about love and loss, can teach Clare how to laugh with the moon.
Told from an American girl's perspective, this story about how death teaches us to live and how love endures through our memories will capture the hearts of readers everywhere.
My Thoughts:
I had some reservations about this book when I first began reading it. It seemed like it was going to be about another spoiled girl taken away from her comfortable home and friends and pouting her way to the end of the story towards a Eureka moment when her beloved materialistic life is somehow forever changed.
Well, close, but not quite. Clare isn't as spoiled as she acts, but she is terribly alone and unhappy. She has been unable to come to terms with the fact of her mother's premature death, and is afraid of losing her in her memory as well. And she resents her father's seeming ability to just move on from her mother without even a look back.
But for all Clare is mad at her dad, a volunteer with the Global Health Project, and even gives his the silent treatment when she remembers to, she does begin to assimilate to her life in Malawi, and even makes a new best friend, a girl named Memory.
This is a wonderful story that deals with death, mourning and memory and the process that a 13 year old girl must go through when tragedy strikes her life. I thought Clare's journey through this process was so realistically portrayed , and I can say that from experience. My daughter lost her dad when she was that age and a lot of her feelings, thoughts and behavior were mirrored in Clare.
Actually the who book has a realistic feel to it. Burg's interest in Malawi began while doing research on the Save the Children program there and much of what she discovered can be found in Laugh with the Moon through Clare's eyes. Clare's observations and descriptions of the problems and deprivations, including death, that Malawian kids must deal with every day have a somewhat teachy feel to them but they are also really informative.
One of the things I did like and I think the readers will relate to is that for all the poverty and lack of books, technology and supplies, school turns out to be not so very different from school anywhere. There is Memory, always friendly and easy going; Agnes, who thinks she is the school queen bee; and Saide, the good looking boy all the girls are crushing on. But what is different, and what Clare learns about, is the idea of making do, which many school must do, even in this country nowadays. When the headmaster asks Clare to take over teaching English to the younger children, for instance, she is shown how to create alphabet letters for the class by baking the mud from a termite hill.
This trip proves to be a pivotal trip for Clare in many ways. Not only does she experience the disparity between how the native Malawians and the azungu (white people) are treated, but most importantly she discovers how Memory is able to deal the losses of parents and siblings in her own life.
But will Clare ever be able to come to terms with her mother's death so that she can follow Memory's philosophy: "Even the mourner must stop and laugh with the moon."
This is a wonderful middle grade coming of age novel that deals with some serious topics for kids that age. It is an energetic, well-written and compelling novel and I highly recommend it.
This book is recommended for readers age 9-12.
This book was purchased for my personal library.
Thirteen-year-old Clare Silver is stuck. Stuck in denial about her mother's recent death. Stuck in the African jungle for sixty-four days without phone reception. Stuck with her father, a doctor who seems able to heal everyone but Clare.
Clare feels like a fish out of water at Mzanga Full Primary School, where she must learn a new language. Soon, though, she becomes immersed in her new surroundings and impressed with her fellow students, who are crowded into a tiny space, working on the floor among roosters and centipedes.
When Clare's new friends take her on an outing to see the country, the trip goes horribly wrong, and Clare must face another heartbreak head-on. Only an orphan named Memory, who knows about love and loss, can teach Clare how to laugh with the moon.
Told from an American girl's perspective, this story about how death teaches us to live and how love endures through our memories will capture the hearts of readers everywhere.
My Thoughts:
I had some reservations about this book when I first began reading it. It seemed like it was going to be about another spoiled girl taken away from her comfortable home and friends and pouting her way to the end of the story towards a Eureka moment when her beloved materialistic life is somehow forever changed.
Well, close, but not quite. Clare isn't as spoiled as she acts, but she is terribly alone and unhappy. She has been unable to come to terms with the fact of her mother's premature death, and is afraid of losing her in her memory as well. And she resents her father's seeming ability to just move on from her mother without even a look back.
But for all Clare is mad at her dad, a volunteer with the Global Health Project, and even gives his the silent treatment when she remembers to, she does begin to assimilate to her life in Malawi, and even makes a new best friend, a girl named Memory.
This is a wonderful story that deals with death, mourning and memory and the process that a 13 year old girl must go through when tragedy strikes her life. I thought Clare's journey through this process was so realistically portrayed , and I can say that from experience. My daughter lost her dad when she was that age and a lot of her feelings, thoughts and behavior were mirrored in Clare.
Actually the who book has a realistic feel to it. Burg's interest in Malawi began while doing research on the Save the Children program there and much of what she discovered can be found in Laugh with the Moon through Clare's eyes. Clare's observations and descriptions of the problems and deprivations, including death, that Malawian kids must deal with every day have a somewhat teachy feel to them but they are also really informative.
One of the things I did like and I think the readers will relate to is that for all the poverty and lack of books, technology and supplies, school turns out to be not so very different from school anywhere. There is Memory, always friendly and easy going; Agnes, who thinks she is the school queen bee; and Saide, the good looking boy all the girls are crushing on. But what is different, and what Clare learns about, is the idea of making do, which many school must do, even in this country nowadays. When the headmaster asks Clare to take over teaching English to the younger children, for instance, she is shown how to create alphabet letters for the class by baking the mud from a termite hill.
This trip proves to be a pivotal trip for Clare in many ways. Not only does she experience the disparity between how the native Malawians and the azungu (white people) are treated, but most importantly she discovers how Memory is able to deal the losses of parents and siblings in her own life.
But will Clare ever be able to come to terms with her mother's death so that she can follow Memory's philosophy: "Even the mourner must stop and laugh with the moon."
This is a wonderful middle grade coming of age novel that deals with some serious topics for kids that age. It is an energetic, well-written and compelling novel and I highly recommend it.
This book is recommended for readers age 9-12.
This book was purchased for my personal library.
August 28, 2021
I hate giving books low marks, but I'm doing it.
This book is about an American teenager living in Milawi.
It's very white centering, not just because of the character being white, but also in terms of how she spends her pages of inner-dialogue.
The good parts of the book are that I think that certain aspects of this story may be true to the experience of someone like the main character. I think the challenge of coming to a new school in a different culture, and trying to develop meaningful friendships were earnestly written about. I think also that the author does a fair job of trying to acknowledge and illuminate some of the challenges that the people in the story face, while still telling keeping it in the scope of the character's life. I think that it's fair too, that as an American author, the author did choose to write from what she knows, rather than contriving a story that is far removed from her own experience. As far as pacing and tone, the story flows well and is easy to read.
The main negative for me is that it's an extremely white-centering story, and I don't quite know what the point of reading a book about Milawi is, if you are just going to read about a white American girl's experience there anyway. I checked out whatever books my library had on Milawi, and this was one of them. It's not the worst book ever, and it's a fast read, I just think it's not really needed.
As far as the white centering goes, right in the beginning the author is having internal grief about some of the physical discomforts of her new environment and leaving her known-life behind. While this is a realistic feeling that a teenager in this situation might face, I feel that it was insensitively written from a self-centered pouty teen's perspective, and I just don't really care. Then main character gets special treatment in school as a white-American-English speaker, and is put in a leadership role at school. This may(??) be a realistic experience (I wouldn't know), but there is very little unpacking of why this would be happening or whether it's good or fair. It fits into the story as though it's just a surprising and remarkable experience for the main character, a situation where she has to demonstrate her grit and competence, as though the assumption is that she can handle anything thrown at her if she just does her best. It smacks of white-saviorism and entitlement. I think on the one hand the character is just thrown into a situation that is over her head because the people she is with may be in an overwhelming situation as well. The character has internal dialogue about why she is overwhelmed, but there is still this underlying assumption that she will be able to pull it off if she just does her best. In another situation the main character's close friends is in grave danger--while there is some poignancy to the way it's written, there's also a bit of emphasis on how will the character save the day, as though the danger is an adventure and not deeply tragic. I mean you have to have serious things happen in a story, if you want to have any plot at all, but it in the end the story is about how the events effect the main character above all else, and how the events effect the main character just seems like the least important thing to care about in the story.
My least favorite line in the book is something about the main character telling her friends "we can be our own saviors" or something like that. It's just so inappropriate in the context, and so explicitly contrived. Without giving too much away, I can just say, the characters are forced into a situation with limited options, and they make a choice for immediate and necessary benefit that is both costly and risky and threatens to do great harm if not resolved, and yet the tools for resolve are out of the children's hands. The inappropriateness is in that the children are dealing with something that is in no way their fault to begin with, where their needs are not being met--due to vast forces outside of their control--such as colonialism and poverty--and the white American girl is encouraging them to be "their own saviors" in something where they actually do NEED outside help and support. It's also inappropriate because the main character has far more resources than her friends. If she wants to do something to improve their situation, she can. If she needs help getting out of trouble, she has it. To impose upon her friends that they should somehow pay for their own suffering on an equal footing as her, is just ridiculous. Not only that, the situation is mostly resolved by the time she encourages her friends to "be their own saviors"--she's moreseo just encouraging them to "pay-back" her dad for helping them out. It's not that the situation needs further resolve, it's just that the main character feels guilty for receiving her dad's help, and basically wants her friends to feel guilty too. Furthermore, her friends are the ones who need help more than she does, her friends are the ones who face the most risk. To try to pressure someone experiencing great loss to pay for something that was taken from them, essentially, rather than just try to help that person, is more than obnoxious. And on top of all of that, it's just too transparent as a plot objective. Okay so, the author wanted to make the kids seem like heroes of their own stories--not only did the story telling fail to accomplish that--but you shouldn't put the exact line in the book to explain what you are trying--and failing--to have your characters do.
Then there is the part of the girl desiring to feel connected to her dead mother. I just feel like it's an attempt at poetry and depth that just falls flat.
The author says she wrote this book so she would have a way to convey her experiences in Malawi to her American students. I don't think it's necessarily wrong that she wrote this book to do that. We all need to tell our stories in different ways. I do think there are a lot of memorable aspects to the book. I think it does better than a book about "oh I was selfish and self-centered and I moved into a country with poverty and loss and I became a better person" --the character doesn't really change much throughout the story. She is self-centered to begin with, but not a "bad" person, still a generally caring person, and she ends the story just as equally self-centered and yet also caring. I imagine it is very difficult to try to pack various overarching themes into a single narrative plot. I just don't see who I would recommend to read a book such as this, other than for the purpose of criticism. I think that if you went through and bullet-pointed different themes and events in the story, you could have a very useful discussion. Even in terms of inter-continental relationships, there's a lot of material here to work with. It's not a bad book in the way of disparaging other people or playing up stereotypes, at least as I can tell. It seems authentic in the sense that it seems like it seems true to the character's own perspective--even if her perspective is skewed. For example, the main character gets a housekeeper in her new residence, and this housekeeper is always cheerful and supportive. Maybe this really would have happened. But it's difficult to just take for granted and let be as a reader. It doesn't really come up whether it's fair or right or normal to have a housekeeper (I'm not saying it's wrong, it just doesn't come up), there is no back story to this character, it's just that the main character needs someone to offer a cheerful greeting, and she gets it. It's like this housekeeper may have been based on a real person, and the character is not quite essential to the plot, but at the same time it's a very flat character and you have to at least question what does it mean for the author to portray this person in such a two-dimensional manner that is all about how they serve her own interests only...In some ways I appreciate the attempt that was made here...This author went to a completely different country than her own, and she wanted to tell people about it, and she wanted to process it, and she tried to bring us with her and she tried to make us care about people she cares about, and those all seem like commendable behaviors...but I don't know how you get around how white-centering the story is.
This book is about an American teenager living in Milawi.
It's very white centering, not just because of the character being white, but also in terms of how she spends her pages of inner-dialogue.
The good parts of the book are that I think that certain aspects of this story may be true to the experience of someone like the main character. I think the challenge of coming to a new school in a different culture, and trying to develop meaningful friendships were earnestly written about. I think also that the author does a fair job of trying to acknowledge and illuminate some of the challenges that the people in the story face, while still telling keeping it in the scope of the character's life. I think that it's fair too, that as an American author, the author did choose to write from what she knows, rather than contriving a story that is far removed from her own experience. As far as pacing and tone, the story flows well and is easy to read.
The main negative for me is that it's an extremely white-centering story, and I don't quite know what the point of reading a book about Milawi is, if you are just going to read about a white American girl's experience there anyway. I checked out whatever books my library had on Milawi, and this was one of them. It's not the worst book ever, and it's a fast read, I just think it's not really needed.
As far as the white centering goes, right in the beginning the author is having internal grief about some of the physical discomforts of her new environment and leaving her known-life behind. While this is a realistic feeling that a teenager in this situation might face, I feel that it was insensitively written from a self-centered pouty teen's perspective, and I just don't really care. Then main character gets special treatment in school as a white-American-English speaker, and is put in a leadership role at school. This may(??) be a realistic experience (I wouldn't know), but there is very little unpacking of why this would be happening or whether it's good or fair. It fits into the story as though it's just a surprising and remarkable experience for the main character, a situation where she has to demonstrate her grit and competence, as though the assumption is that she can handle anything thrown at her if she just does her best. It smacks of white-saviorism and entitlement. I think on the one hand the character is just thrown into a situation that is over her head because the people she is with may be in an overwhelming situation as well. The character has internal dialogue about why she is overwhelmed, but there is still this underlying assumption that she will be able to pull it off if she just does her best. In another situation the main character's close friends is in grave danger--while there is some poignancy to the way it's written, there's also a bit of emphasis on how will the character save the day, as though the danger is an adventure and not deeply tragic. I mean you have to have serious things happen in a story, if you want to have any plot at all, but it in the end the story is about how the events effect the main character above all else, and how the events effect the main character just seems like the least important thing to care about in the story.
My least favorite line in the book is something about the main character telling her friends "we can be our own saviors" or something like that. It's just so inappropriate in the context, and so explicitly contrived. Without giving too much away, I can just say, the characters are forced into a situation with limited options, and they make a choice for immediate and necessary benefit that is both costly and risky and threatens to do great harm if not resolved, and yet the tools for resolve are out of the children's hands. The inappropriateness is in that the children are dealing with something that is in no way their fault to begin with, where their needs are not being met--due to vast forces outside of their control--such as colonialism and poverty--and the white American girl is encouraging them to be "their own saviors" in something where they actually do NEED outside help and support. It's also inappropriate because the main character has far more resources than her friends. If she wants to do something to improve their situation, she can. If she needs help getting out of trouble, she has it. To impose upon her friends that they should somehow pay for their own suffering on an equal footing as her, is just ridiculous. Not only that, the situation is mostly resolved by the time she encourages her friends to "be their own saviors"--she's moreseo just encouraging them to "pay-back" her dad for helping them out. It's not that the situation needs further resolve, it's just that the main character feels guilty for receiving her dad's help, and basically wants her friends to feel guilty too. Furthermore, her friends are the ones who need help more than she does, her friends are the ones who face the most risk. To try to pressure someone experiencing great loss to pay for something that was taken from them, essentially, rather than just try to help that person, is more than obnoxious. And on top of all of that, it's just too transparent as a plot objective. Okay so, the author wanted to make the kids seem like heroes of their own stories--not only did the story telling fail to accomplish that--but you shouldn't put the exact line in the book to explain what you are trying--and failing--to have your characters do.
Then there is the part of the girl desiring to feel connected to her dead mother. I just feel like it's an attempt at poetry and depth that just falls flat.
The author says she wrote this book so she would have a way to convey her experiences in Malawi to her American students. I don't think it's necessarily wrong that she wrote this book to do that. We all need to tell our stories in different ways. I do think there are a lot of memorable aspects to the book. I think it does better than a book about "oh I was selfish and self-centered and I moved into a country with poverty and loss and I became a better person" --the character doesn't really change much throughout the story. She is self-centered to begin with, but not a "bad" person, still a generally caring person, and she ends the story just as equally self-centered and yet also caring. I imagine it is very difficult to try to pack various overarching themes into a single narrative plot. I just don't see who I would recommend to read a book such as this, other than for the purpose of criticism. I think that if you went through and bullet-pointed different themes and events in the story, you could have a very useful discussion. Even in terms of inter-continental relationships, there's a lot of material here to work with. It's not a bad book in the way of disparaging other people or playing up stereotypes, at least as I can tell. It seems authentic in the sense that it seems like it seems true to the character's own perspective--even if her perspective is skewed. For example, the main character gets a housekeeper in her new residence, and this housekeeper is always cheerful and supportive. Maybe this really would have happened. But it's difficult to just take for granted and let be as a reader. It doesn't really come up whether it's fair or right or normal to have a housekeeper (I'm not saying it's wrong, it just doesn't come up), there is no back story to this character, it's just that the main character needs someone to offer a cheerful greeting, and she gets it. It's like this housekeeper may have been based on a real person, and the character is not quite essential to the plot, but at the same time it's a very flat character and you have to at least question what does it mean for the author to portray this person in such a two-dimensional manner that is all about how they serve her own interests only...In some ways I appreciate the attempt that was made here...This author went to a completely different country than her own, and she wanted to tell people about it, and she wanted to process it, and she tried to bring us with her and she tried to make us care about people she cares about, and those all seem like commendable behaviors...but I don't know how you get around how white-centering the story is.
September 1, 2012
Having recently returned from my first trip to Africa, I was eager to read this new novel by author Shana Burg which takes place in Malawi. Thirteen-year old Clare has just suffered one of the worst losses a child can imagine--her mother has died, leaving her family consisting of just her and her father, a doctor who seems to care about everyone else more than Clare. At least that's the way she feels when he up and moves the two of them to rural Malawi for several months, where he will be working at the local hospital and she will attend the local village school.
But this novel is more than a "fish out of water" story as Clare struggles to adapt to a completely foreign environment and lifestyle, where she has no cell phone coverage, must wear a totally unfashionable school uniform, and live literally in the middle of the jungle, with no condos, buses, or restaurants. She's so angry with her dad that she's giving him the silent treatment. But eventually the people of Malawi break through her broken heart, helping her to heal.
Burg, who has worked in Malawi herself with Save the Children, manages to capture the many wonders of Africa--the spirit of the people, the beauties of the landscape and animals, and the crushing poverty. Young girls will identify with Clare trying to fit in with the local girls--gossiping about boys and who likes whom seems to be a universally popular occupation--as well as her sorrows and achievements during her trip. And they'll be amazed at how the children in the local school manage with hardly any textbooks (which must be taken for safekeeping from school every day so they won't be stolen), paper, desks, or other ordinary school supplies that we take for granted, even sculpting letters out of termite mounds. Clare, like everyone else who visits Africa, I suspect, is the not the same person when she leaves.
This novel manages to combine humor (naughty monkeys and pet chickens, in particular) with the poignancy of loss in a way which is appealing to the target audience. Burg also manages to teach many lessons about Africa in a subtle manner, without seeming didactic
An author's note explains about the author's trip to Africa to investigate conditions in schools in Malawi and also discusses the challenges of medical care in this very poor country. She also includes a recipe for a Malawi treat and a glossary of Chichewa words that appear in the text. I would have liked to see a map of Africa which would have situated Malawi for the young readers, and possibly a list of nonprofits that accept contributions for medical or school projects, in the case that young people are inspired to help out for these very worthy causes as part of the back matter.
This would be a great book to add to school and public library collections--it's a contemporary story in an exotic setting that should definitely appeal to tween readers.
But this novel is more than a "fish out of water" story as Clare struggles to adapt to a completely foreign environment and lifestyle, where she has no cell phone coverage, must wear a totally unfashionable school uniform, and live literally in the middle of the jungle, with no condos, buses, or restaurants. She's so angry with her dad that she's giving him the silent treatment. But eventually the people of Malawi break through her broken heart, helping her to heal.
Burg, who has worked in Malawi herself with Save the Children, manages to capture the many wonders of Africa--the spirit of the people, the beauties of the landscape and animals, and the crushing poverty. Young girls will identify with Clare trying to fit in with the local girls--gossiping about boys and who likes whom seems to be a universally popular occupation--as well as her sorrows and achievements during her trip. And they'll be amazed at how the children in the local school manage with hardly any textbooks (which must be taken for safekeeping from school every day so they won't be stolen), paper, desks, or other ordinary school supplies that we take for granted, even sculpting letters out of termite mounds. Clare, like everyone else who visits Africa, I suspect, is the not the same person when she leaves.
This novel manages to combine humor (naughty monkeys and pet chickens, in particular) with the poignancy of loss in a way which is appealing to the target audience. Burg also manages to teach many lessons about Africa in a subtle manner, without seeming didactic
An author's note explains about the author's trip to Africa to investigate conditions in schools in Malawi and also discusses the challenges of medical care in this very poor country. She also includes a recipe for a Malawi treat and a glossary of Chichewa words that appear in the text. I would have liked to see a map of Africa which would have situated Malawi for the young readers, and possibly a list of nonprofits that accept contributions for medical or school projects, in the case that young people are inspired to help out for these very worthy causes as part of the back matter.
This would be a great book to add to school and public library collections--it's a contemporary story in an exotic setting that should definitely appeal to tween readers.
July 25, 2012
I can't imagine being thirteen and losing my mother. I have had many students who have had to go through this heart-rending situation. What made this story even more emotional was knowing that Clare's father pulled her from everything and everyone she knew and loved and moved her to Malawi for six months. Her father was excited to go back to a country he had worked in before. Clare had decided to give her dad the silent treatment for the entire six months. It's funny how meeting someone who has lost more than you have, and learning that there is always a silver lining if you look for it hard enough can help you heal and grow.
Clare is stubborn, intelligent, artistic and very loving. She has let the pain of losing her mother guide her for too long. In Malawai she learns she has much to offer others as well as watching as others who have lost so much more give everything. This was not an easy book to read. It is a book I will put at the front of my class on the first day of school and recommend to all of my students. I am trying to create global minded students. My students may not be able to travel to Malawi or any other country less fortunate than we are here in the USA. Through books like this one they will learn so much about what it takes to truly give of yourself. They can learn that the simplest gesture can make a difference. The fact that the book is full of information and facts because the author has been to Malawi holds great weight with me. I loved the vocabulary throughout the book. It is something else my students will love.
The book was so wonderfully written I could envision Clare's first encounter with a hippo and her shock at the school compared to her school back home. The author did a wonderful job of bringing the reader along with her to Malawi. I felt like I was a character walking beside Clare, Memory and Agnes. I will definitely read more by this author. I look for great books to recommend to my students and my parents for their children. This book is not just for middle schoolers or young adults. This is a book that even adults will enjoy. If you read no other book this year, this is the one you must read.
Clare is stubborn, intelligent, artistic and very loving. She has let the pain of losing her mother guide her for too long. In Malawai she learns she has much to offer others as well as watching as others who have lost so much more give everything. This was not an easy book to read. It is a book I will put at the front of my class on the first day of school and recommend to all of my students. I am trying to create global minded students. My students may not be able to travel to Malawi or any other country less fortunate than we are here in the USA. Through books like this one they will learn so much about what it takes to truly give of yourself. They can learn that the simplest gesture can make a difference. The fact that the book is full of information and facts because the author has been to Malawi holds great weight with me. I loved the vocabulary throughout the book. It is something else my students will love.
The book was so wonderfully written I could envision Clare's first encounter with a hippo and her shock at the school compared to her school back home. The author did a wonderful job of bringing the reader along with her to Malawi. I felt like I was a character walking beside Clare, Memory and Agnes. I will definitely read more by this author. I look for great books to recommend to my students and my parents for their children. This book is not just for middle schoolers or young adults. This is a book that even adults will enjoy. If you read no other book this year, this is the one you must read.
November 4, 2013
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.
Definitely a girl's book for dealing with a very real issue.
January 30, 2013
The last place thirteen-year-old Clare wants to be is on an airplane with her dad heading to a village in Malawi, Africa for two months. She’s still grieving over her mother’s unexpected death nearly a year ago, and she’s angry that her dad seems to be moving on with his life. She’s determined not to like anything about Africa once she gets there.
But the more Clare gets to know the people in the village and learn about their lives, the more she wants to know. And in her friend, Memory, Clare may have finally found someone who can understand her grief.
Laugh With the Moon by Shana Burg is a compelling story of a girl who is trying to find her way forward after a tragic loss. Clare feels as though she is betraying her mother if she’s happy. But Africa is such a change from what she knows that she is forced to think differently.
In Malawi, she finds a people who face loss regularly from illnesses that are easily preventable. She wonders about the differences between her school at home with its abundance of supplies and the meager materials she works with at school in Malawi. She wants to find ways to help, but she also knows that just because she has enough money to fix a problem temporarily, it’s not enough to make a long-term impact.
What Clare learns about honoring loss while celebrating life is sure to generate lots of discussion in mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 10 to 14. There’s also a lot to explore about schools in Africa, especially if a club is motivated to take on a service project after reading the book. There’s an excellent educator’s guide on Burg’s website (shanaburg.com/educators) where club members can find discussion topics as well as Internet resources, such as a map of Malawi and information about Save the Children International and the World Health Organization. I highly recommend it.
The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion in this review.
But the more Clare gets to know the people in the village and learn about their lives, the more she wants to know. And in her friend, Memory, Clare may have finally found someone who can understand her grief.
Laugh With the Moon by Shana Burg is a compelling story of a girl who is trying to find her way forward after a tragic loss. Clare feels as though she is betraying her mother if she’s happy. But Africa is such a change from what she knows that she is forced to think differently.
In Malawi, she finds a people who face loss regularly from illnesses that are easily preventable. She wonders about the differences between her school at home with its abundance of supplies and the meager materials she works with at school in Malawi. She wants to find ways to help, but she also knows that just because she has enough money to fix a problem temporarily, it’s not enough to make a long-term impact.
What Clare learns about honoring loss while celebrating life is sure to generate lots of discussion in mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 10 to 14. There’s also a lot to explore about schools in Africa, especially if a club is motivated to take on a service project after reading the book. There’s an excellent educator’s guide on Burg’s website (shanaburg.com/educators) where club members can find discussion topics as well as Internet resources, such as a map of Malawi and information about Save the Children International and the World Health Organization. I highly recommend it.
The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion in this review.
September 14, 2013
Laugh with the Moon is a realistic, fictional book about a young teenager who is forced to go to Malawi, Africa with her dad, a volunteer doctor. Clare is mourning the death of her mother and is mad at her father because she doesn't want to leave her friends and her life in Boston.
When Clare gets to Africa, she is upset because she misses lots of things she had owned or had access to that don’t exist in Malawi such as cell phone service and hot, long showers. What she didn't realize was that what she had was much more than what the kids in Malawi have. She didn't like how her room was so drab with a mosquito net over her bed and she didn't appreciate that she actually had a car when other kids had to walk everywhere they went.
Clare’s dad drags her to a ceremony celebrating his return to Malawi. Clare gets bored and begins to wander off. That’s when she meets Memory. Memory is a girl who lives with her brother and her grandmother, Clare is wondering if she has a mom. She doesn't want to ask since they just met. Memory told Clare that they would be at the same school.
Clare and Memory and Memory’s little brother, Innocent, went to school in what Clare thought were the ugliest outfits ever. Memory walks into her room with Clare. When it’s time for English Clare has to learn Malawian. Later Clare is asked to be the English teacher for Innocent’s grade. Clare doesn't want to. Her friends tell her they’ll take her on a surprise trip. She finds out how much fun it is teaching them.She uses things like termite towers to make letters for the children.
Memory and Clare go on many adventures together. They run into a hippo and an elephant. Clare finds out how much fun Malawi is and how tragic it is at the same time. She also comes to appreciate all the things she once took for granted in her own life.
When Clare gets to Africa, she is upset because she misses lots of things she had owned or had access to that don’t exist in Malawi such as cell phone service and hot, long showers. What she didn't realize was that what she had was much more than what the kids in Malawi have. She didn't like how her room was so drab with a mosquito net over her bed and she didn't appreciate that she actually had a car when other kids had to walk everywhere they went.
Clare’s dad drags her to a ceremony celebrating his return to Malawi. Clare gets bored and begins to wander off. That’s when she meets Memory. Memory is a girl who lives with her brother and her grandmother, Clare is wondering if she has a mom. She doesn't want to ask since they just met. Memory told Clare that they would be at the same school.
Clare and Memory and Memory’s little brother, Innocent, went to school in what Clare thought were the ugliest outfits ever. Memory walks into her room with Clare. When it’s time for English Clare has to learn Malawian. Later Clare is asked to be the English teacher for Innocent’s grade. Clare doesn't want to. Her friends tell her they’ll take her on a surprise trip. She finds out how much fun it is teaching them.She uses things like termite towers to make letters for the children.
Memory and Clare go on many adventures together. They run into a hippo and an elephant. Clare finds out how much fun Malawi is and how tragic it is at the same time. She also comes to appreciate all the things she once took for granted in her own life.
November 26, 2014
When Claire moves to Malawi for two months because of her dad who is a doctor and works for the Global Health Project, she gives her dad the silent treatment. Her life has become terrible after her mom died eight months ago. Then Clare starts going to Mzanga Full Primary and feels out of place. Then, she meets Memory, Innocent and Saidi and becomes friends. As Claire lives in Malawi, she learns to be grateful for what she has and be happy instead of sad. This heart-warming story teaches you how to live through loss and to laugh with the moon. A very captivating story, Laugh With The Moon is full of love, loss, and friendship in these rough times in Africa.
What I thought about it:
Laugh With The Moon was incredible. It seems so surreal what they do in Malawi coming from America. We are so lucky to have everything we have. This book was just very moving. Shana Burg wrote it very realistically, as far as I’m concerned it could have been a real story. It makes us think we’re so spoiled, when in Africa they can’t afford many things at all. I would love to go to Malawi or Swaziland or someplace like that to experience what life is like. I really liked Mrs. Bwanali, Clare and her dad’s maid. she is such a character if you know what I mean. Laugh With The Moon is a must-read.
Read more reviews at: www.mybookwormblog.wordpress.com
What I thought about it:
Laugh With The Moon was incredible. It seems so surreal what they do in Malawi coming from America. We are so lucky to have everything we have. This book was just very moving. Shana Burg wrote it very realistically, as far as I’m concerned it could have been a real story. It makes us think we’re so spoiled, when in Africa they can’t afford many things at all. I would love to go to Malawi or Swaziland or someplace like that to experience what life is like. I really liked Mrs. Bwanali, Clare and her dad’s maid. she is such a character if you know what I mean. Laugh With The Moon is a must-read.
Read more reviews at: www.mybookwormblog.wordpress.com
January 17, 2019
Clare's mother has died. Her father is a doctor and decides to move them to Malawi where he will work in a local hospital. Needless to say, Clare is not thrilled. She doesn't want to leave her home, her friends and where she knew her mom. Once they get to Malawi it is complete culture shock. Everything from the living conditions to the food to the school is 100% different than what she is used to. However, Clare makes friends with Memory and her brother Innocent. She starts fitting in at school and things start to look up. She even gets to teach English to the first graders. Clare has to deal with a lot; she has to come to terms with the loss of her mom, to forgive her dad, and to learn to love her new life.
I didn't think I would like this book as much as I did. I loved Clare and all her trials and triumphs. I thought she was extremely realistic in how she handled everything from the chicken to the shower to the school. Boston and Malawi are worlds apart and I thought Shana Burg did a great job showing just how different life in Africa really is. I also loved that this was not an after school special type book and that everything was not perfect. Life expectancy is low in Malawi; people don't live to old age (old age is your 40s). I thought it was really realistic to show a child's death and to show how difficult getting an education was. Excellent book!
I didn't think I would like this book as much as I did. I loved Clare and all her trials and triumphs. I thought she was extremely realistic in how she handled everything from the chicken to the shower to the school. Boston and Malawi are worlds apart and I thought Shana Burg did a great job showing just how different life in Africa really is. I also loved that this was not an after school special type book and that everything was not perfect. Life expectancy is low in Malawi; people don't live to old age (old age is your 40s). I thought it was really realistic to show a child's death and to show how difficult getting an education was. Excellent book!
August 13, 2012
After her mother dies, Clare’s father takes her to Malawi where he had worked as a young doctor. Clare is determined to never speak to her father again. She has lost not just her mother, but her best friend and the potential for her first boyfriend at school. Now she is stuck in Africa where there is little hot water, mosquito netting over the bed, and monkeys screaming outside. As Clare starts to relax into life in Africa, she begins to make incredible friends at her new school. Memory, a girl from the local village, quickly becomes her closest friend. Memory too has lost her mother, though the girls don’t speak of their losses together. Memory makes sure that Clare has things that she can eat, explains the school day to her, and even warns her of the bully in class. As Clare faces her new school with its new language, visiting chickens, and scurrying insects, her relationship with her father starts to get better. Clare still has big issues to face, including teaching English, putting together a play, and another large loss in her life.
Read the rest of my review on my blog, Waking Brain Cells.
Read the rest of my review on my blog, Waking Brain Cells.
July 21, 2012
Throughout every moment of this book, I felt like I was right there experiencing everything with Clare Silver. I loved this rich story about family and friendship bonds, and what is important in life. I really think the title ties into the whole book so perfectly--and you'll discover how as Clare figures out how she can fit into an African village that she is plopped down into after her mother passes and her father, a doctor, is now working in a malaria stricken hospital. The characters were so believable, I didn't want the book to end. One of my favorite quotes from the book:"I used to think that happy people dance and sad people cry. But now I see that people aren't like stiches on a hem. They don't always follow a pattern. They don't always weave in and out, holding the pieces of their lives together in the way you might expect. Sad people can laugh and dance, and that doesn't mean they're suddenly fine. And happy people can cry, and that doesn't mean they're not okay.
It depends on the moment.
It depends on who they are in the moment.
It depends on absolutely everything."
It depends on the moment.
It depends on who they are in the moment.
It depends on absolutely everything."
September 7, 2014
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!!
June 19, 2014
This is a great book about a girl, Clare, who has lost her mother and temporarily moved with her father (a doctor) to Malawi. She meets a local girl, Memory, who also has lost her mother and her father. She also becomes "mother" to a chicken named Fred. Clare must learn to adjust to a new way of life without the conveniences of American living while her father works at the local hospital. Clare attends a local school and finds a way to grieve her mother's passing through the opportunity to teach English to 176 school children, including Memory's little brother Innocent. His smile becomes a sign of peace for Clare. As Clare adjusts to life in Malawi, she must deal with another tragedy that hits very close to home again. Through it all, Clare becomes friends with local children, shows strength and perseverance in times of tragedy, and is sad when she learns she is returning to her home in Boston. What a powerful story! I hope Shana Burg keeps writing fiction for this age level!
May 3, 2012
This was a wonderful book. I don't read much middle grade, but wow! The author captured the innocence and confusion of youth in a way that was engaging for readers of any age. I felt like I was right there with Clare exploring Malawi culture and making new friends (and frenemies).
Great literature can transport you to another time and place, and Laugh with the Moon does just that. I felt like a giggling school girl crushing on Saidi, wanting to punish my dad for being annoying, and trying to do right even though the path is not always clear (I totally wouldn't have killed the surprise chicken either).
Finally understanding what the title meant in the closing pages added thematic depth and turned this novel from "nice read" into the teacher of an important life lesson. Well done, Shana Burg!
Great literature can transport you to another time and place, and Laugh with the Moon does just that. I felt like a giggling school girl crushing on Saidi, wanting to punish my dad for being annoying, and trying to do right even though the path is not always clear (I totally wouldn't have killed the surprise chicken either).
Finally understanding what the title meant in the closing pages added thematic depth and turned this novel from "nice read" into the teacher of an important life lesson. Well done, Shana Burg!
June 21, 2012
Thirteen year old Clare is grieving for her mother when she is abruptly displaced from her home near Boston and is brought to Malawi by her father, who is working there temporarily as a doctor. Clare’s anger and grief are manifested in a very real way (she gives her dad an extended silent treatment) but slowly she starts to make friends and become involved in the village school. I appreciated that both Clare and the Malawi kids that she befriends evolve over the course of the book, but remain multidimensional and complex. This is an excellent glimpse of how life can be both very different and very much the same in a faraway country.
I read this immediately after finishing Paul Theroux's The Lower River , which also takes place primarily in Malawi. Theroux's text, not surprisingly, is much darker, but I really liked them both.
I read this immediately after finishing Paul Theroux's The Lower River , which also takes place primarily in Malawi. Theroux's text, not surprisingly, is much darker, but I really liked them both.
February 16, 2013
Once again Shana Burg writes a beautiful book, this time centered through thirteen-year-old Clare's perspective. Her mother has died within the past year, and her doctor father takes this only child to Malawi, Africa, or to Clare's mind, the middle of nowhere. And certainly, Malawi is remote. Although it might seem a cliche to say that Clare's attitude changes and her heart heals, I loved how we change along with Clare as we learn to love the village life, the school, the friends she makes, and even mourn when tragedy strikes. Malawi has a high HIV/AIDS rate, high infant mortality, low life expectancy, and malaria. Burg weaves a growing up tale in an exotic, fascinating location. Read this beautiful book.
July 14, 2014
Laugh with the Moon is the story of Clare, a thirteen year old girl, who is brought to Africa with her father for part of the summer after her mother dies. The story is a combination of her adjusting to life in Africa and coping with the loss of her mother. She makes friends, deals with a tragedy, and evolves as a character. My favorite aspects of this middle school book were learning about the African community with whom Clare lives and the growth of the character. If you have a sensitive child, be forewarned as it is centered around the theme of loss, and there are some challenging situations in the story related to this. I think this book is fine for younger middle school readers provided they are not overly sensitive to stories involving death and loss.
June 4, 2015
After her mother's death, Clare Silver and her physician father travel to Malawi, a small African village to administer health aid to the people. Clare, clearly is not in favor of this two-month absence from her friends and the Massachusetts neighborhood that she loves. But, once there, she becomes friends with the gentle people and grows to love them in a way she did not see coming.
With their lack of medical supplies and a proper hospital to care for the sick, she sees death and grief, much like she experienced with her own mother, yet the disease and sorrow happen much more often in this remote village.
Laugh With the Moon teaches the lesson of compassion through friendship and hopefulness through heartbreak.
With their lack of medical supplies and a proper hospital to care for the sick, she sees death and grief, much like she experienced with her own mother, yet the disease and sorrow happen much more often in this remote village.
Laugh With the Moon teaches the lesson of compassion through friendship and hopefulness through heartbreak.
February 22, 2013
The strength of this book is its depiction of life in Malawi. The main character, Clare, moves there with her father as a way to work through their grief over the loss of her mother. Her culture shock, gradual acceptance, and final love for her African experience feels very real.
It takes some time for this story to find its voice; the first few chapters are awkward. But we eventually get swept into Clare's adventure: her friends and enemies; her stint as a teacher; her romantic interest; her life-and-death struggle to save a friend; her after-death connection to her mother.
A highlight: the author captures the poetry and cadence of Malawian expressions in English.
It takes some time for this story to find its voice; the first few chapters are awkward. But we eventually get swept into Clare's adventure: her friends and enemies; her stint as a teacher; her romantic interest; her life-and-death struggle to save a friend; her after-death connection to her mother.
A highlight: the author captures the poetry and cadence of Malawian expressions in English.
September 2, 2012
Simply told, with a profound message. Favorite quote: "But now I see that people aren't like stitches on a hem. They don't always follow a pattern. They don't always weave in and out, holding pieces of their lives together in the way you might expect. Sad people can laugh and dance, and that doesn't mean they're suddenly fine. And happy people can cry, and that doesn't mean they're not okay. It depends on the moment. It depends on who they are in the moment. It depends on absolutely everything."
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