Keeping the Moon

By: Sarah Dessen
Reviewed by: Tahrima, 15
Rating: Really Liked It!

In Keeping the Moon, Sarah Dessen delivers a rich, well-written story filled with lively characters who embrace the concepts of self-image and self-worth in their own ways. While her fitness-guru mother is on a working tour in Europe, fifteen-year old Colie will spend the summer with her eccentric aunt Mira and her cat, Cat Norman, in North Carolina. Due to frequent moving around with her mother when she was younger and having been overweight, Colie always felt like an outsider. Although she lost the extra weight, she is still without friends, and now has a reputation for being ôeasy.ö So, staying with an aunt she barely remembers in an unfamiliar small town seems like the last thing in the world she needs. Colie is soon befriended by neighbors, Isabel and Morgan, two young waitresses at the Last Chance Bar and Grill and by Norman, a ôhippie art freak,ö who lives in her aunt MiraÆs basement. Between working at the restaurant under MorganÆs guidance, consisting of lessons like ômayonnaise is a lot like menà,ö and spending time with her aunt Mira, Colie starts to leave her reclusive self behind. Although she would not have anticipated a summer spent like this, it may turn out to be just what she needed. Readers will enjoy this uplifting novel in which the characters embrace their own unique qualities, confront their weaknesses and find value in themselves and their friends.