Walker, S. (2019). Mooncakes. By Xu, Wendy. Oni Press.
Mooncakes follows a young deaf witch, Nova, that is living with her grandmothers when strange things start to happen in the woods around their bookshop, The Black Witch. When Nova goes to in to investigate strange things happening she rekindles a friendship with an old friend and werewolf Tam. Tam was a huge part of Nova’s life and their return rekindles a relationship that was missing. They discover an underground cult trying to take Tam to be binded with a demon, but with help from Nova’s grandparents and her best friend Tatyana they will battle demons and hidden cults, discovering more than just magic as they go along.
The text written by Walker and illustrated by Xu does a great job of telling the story. Xu’s illustrations convey the emotions of the story and the relationship between two young teenagers. The plot gives you glimpses into Nova and Tam’s complex relationship with their families. Nova’s relationship with her deceased parents and her refusal to leave town for an apprenticeship and Tam’s estranged relationship with their mother and step father. Goodreads gives this text difficulty a 1 making it easy for students to consume.
The book does a phenomenal job of inclusive perspectives by including a person who is deaf and a non-binary person as well. The relationship between Tam and Nova is an important one because people often struggle to understand that gender and sexual orientation are not connected. That a person being trans does not mean that they are necessarily gay and thats extremely important. This is a great book for representation of the LGTBQIA+ community. While this book is fiction and focuses on witchcraft is still covers great themes about real life as a teenager and going through change with yourself and your family.
This book could easily be put into a free reading section of a classroom library and students could check it out when they’d like. I think the illustrations are done so well it could be a great example for an art class as well. Xu does an amazing job of conveying the emotions of the characters. Her fight scene is so well done it felt like you were in the mix.
Review Four
Walker, S. (2019). Mooncakes. By Xu, Wendy. Oni Press.
Mooncakes follows a young deaf witch, Nova, that is living with her grandmothers when strange things start to happen in the woods around their bookshop, The Black Witch. When Nova goes to in to investigate strange things happening she rekindles a friendship with an old friend and werewolf Tam. Tam was a huge part of Nova’s life and their return rekindles a relationship that was missing. They discover an underground cult trying to take Tam to be binded with a demon, but with help from Nova’s grandparents and her best friend Tatyana they will battle demons and hidden cults, discovering more than just magic as they go along.
The text written by Walker and illustrated by Xu does a great job of telling the story. Xu’s illustrations convey the emotions of the story and the relationship between two young teenagers. The plot gives you glimpses into Nova and Tam’s complex relationship with their families. Nova’s relationship with her deceased parents and her refusal to leave town for an apprenticeship and Tam’s estranged relationship with their mother and step father. Goodreads gives this text difficulty a 1 making it easy for students to consume.
The book does a phenomenal job of inclusive perspectives by including a person who is deaf and a non-binary person as well. The relationship between Tam and Nova is an important one because people often struggle to understand that gender and sexual orientation are not connected. That a person being trans does not mean that they are necessarily gay and thats extremely important. This is a great book for representation of the LGTBQIA+ community. While this book is fiction and focuses on witchcraft is still covers great themes about real life as a teenager and going through change with yourself and your family.
This book could easily be put into a free reading section of a classroom library and students could check it out when they’d like. I think the illustrations are done so well it could be a great example for an art class as well. Xu does an amazing job of conveying the emotions of the characters. Her fight scene is so well done it felt like you were in the mix.