Laugh with the Moon

May 14, 2012
With keen insight into culture and the psychology of grief, Burg (A Thousand Never Evers) crafts an atmospheric novel about 13-year-old Clare and her doctor father’s nine-week trip to Malawi. Clare chafes at leaving her friends (and technology) behind, and she is still struggling with her mother’s death eight months earlier. However, she is soon swept into a challenging but restorative adventure. When the headmaster at Clare’s school recruits her to teach English to 176 students, she finds new strength and confronts the difficulties, like a lack of books and other resources; her friends help her find ingenious solutions such as shaping letters of the alphabet from baked mud. Imaginary and dream scenes between Clare and her mother are uneven: though they sometimes ground the relationship and emotions, they can also interrupt the pacing of the narrative. The setting and cast emerge as real standouts, especially Clare’s friend Memory, who tells her, “Even the mourner must stop and laugh with the moon.” As this memorable heroine contends with loss, Burg balances tragedy with hope and resilience. Ages 8–12. Agent: Andrea Cascardi, Transatlantic Literary Agency.

April 15, 2012
Melding the colors of heartache and loss with painterly strokes, Burg creates a vivid work of art about a girl grieving for her recently deceased mother against a Third World backdrop. Clare is not speaking to her father. She has vowed never to speak to him again. Which could be tough, since the pair just touched down in Malawi. There, Clare finds herself struck by the contrast between American wealth and the relatively bare-bones existence of her new friends. Drowning in mourning and enraged at the emptiness of grief, Clare is a hurricane of early-adolescent emotions. Her anger toward her father crackles like lightning in the treetops. She finds purpose, though, in teaching English to the younger children, which leads her out of grief. Burg's imagery shimmers. "The girl talks to her mother in a language that sounds like fireworks, full of bursts and pops. She holds her hand over her mouth giggling.... She probably has so many minutes with her mother, she can't even count them." Her realization of the setting and appreciation for the Malawian people are so successful that they compensate for Clare's wallowing, which sometimes feels contrived. Ultimately, Burg's lyrical prose will make readers think about the common ground among peoples, despite inevitable disparities. (Fiction. 9-12)

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Starred review from June 1, 2012

Gr 4-8-Thirteen-year-old Clare Silver is still wrapped up in her own personal tragedy when her father, a medical doctor, whisks her along on his journey to Africa as part of a two-month visit to work in a local clinic. While he relishes the smell of jasmine after a soaking rain, sleeping under a mosquito net, and reuniting with old friends, the only thing Clare sees in Malawi is isolation and loneliness. With no cell-phone reception and a new home that doesn't even keep out the rain, let alone local wildlife, Clare can't even text her friends to tell them how she feels like a prisoner in this strange land. Her first day at the Mzanga Full Primary School opens her eyes to daily life in this small country, and her new friend, Memory, helps her bridge the cultural gap. In this new world that first seemed devoid of all necessities like computers, cell phones, and department stores, Clare begins to learn the value of friendship and the wonderment of finding your place in the world. This is a heartfelt story of love and loss told through the eyes of an American girl who learns about true friendship and heartbreak at a school where students have few supplies but an abundance of understanding. When tragedy strikes again, it's Clare's African friends who help her find comfort and strength when sometimes all one can hope for is to laugh with the moon. This lyrical story will be consumed in one long sitting, but the characters will stay with readers for a very long time.-Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Grades 4-7 Deep in sorrow after the death of her mother, Clare, 13, is furious with her physician father for dragging her with him from their home in Boston to Malawi, where he works in a hospital. She gives him the silent treatment and talks to her mother in her head until, slowly, she begins to make friends, help out in the crowded school, and get drawn into the local people's struggle with severe poverty. Burg has worked in Malawi, and she writes from an insider's viewpoint about the harshness of daily life with little food, running water, or electricity, and also about the richness of Malawi's culture and community. Yes, there are the scary encounters in the wild, including with an elephant, but because Burg focuses on universals, readers will easily connect with Clare as she makes enemies as well as friends and confronts overwhelming grief in her own family and others.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2012
Clare Silver must be the only girl in America whose father could think he can take her mind off her mother's death by dragging her to Malawi, the "warm heart of Africa." And just when Clare starts to feel like she's fitting in, another tragedy strikes. Well-drawn characters and a unique setting will not only make readers care about Clare's life but perhaps re-evaluate their own.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)