Bird Lake Moon

Mitch Sinclair was not planning on spending all summer at his grandparents' little house on Bird Lake. Because his parents' divorce is underway, he and his mother are now doing just that, and it's not easy. Spencer Stone hasn't been to Bird Lake in years, not since his older brother Matty drowned there, but his mother is finally ready to try to go to the family vacation house there again. The Stone house is right next to Mitch's grandparents, and Mitch was hoping to have the place to himself... so when the Stones show up with their intact family and beloved dog, Mitch decides to try to scare them away by making it look like a ghost is haunting the place. Told in two voices, the reader sees that Mitch's attempts at scary stunts aren't show more perceived that way by Spencer, as everything he sees is colored by his brother's death. This is not an action-packed mystery; instead, it is an emotionally-driven story about two boys dealing with two different tragedies, and it will be valuable to use in discussions about how two people can see the same thing and understand two completely different things from it. 6th grade and up. show less

Darn the fuzzy, old-fashioned cover - no boy in the world is going to be attracted to it. And this is a fine boy book. Introspective and contemplative, it is true, but who says boys don't have feelings? Two families are staying by a lake. 12-year-old Mitch and his mom are staying with Mitch's grandparents because his father has left the family. 10-year-old Spencer and his family are back at the lake, 8 years after Spencer's older brother drowned one summer. This isn't so much a friendship story as it is the brief merging of these two thoughtful boys' lives during one important summer. What makes this book compelling is not the action but the way each boy thinks about the world and people around him.

Birk Lake Moon is the story of two boys and the summer they spent next door to each other at Bird Lake.  Mitch Sinclair is living with his rather rigid, not much fun, grandparents while his mother recovers from the trauma of her husband (Mitch's father) having just walked out on them to take up life with a younger girl-friend. No one seems to catch on that Mitch is grieving also. Spencer Stone arrives at his family's lake house several days after Mitch.  The Stones have owned the house for years, but have not returned for about 10 years since Mitch's little brother drowned there.  Spencer's parents aren't sure they can handle the memory, but want to try.  Spencer's little sister provides some delightful and typical little sister show more humor to the story.

The two boys meet, take a bit of time to decide whether to be friends, and discover that grief and loneliness is better handled with friends to help.   It's a beautiful book, written with great insight into the emotions young people often try to handle without the help of adults who may be too busy handling their own problems.  I think today's adults, both teen aged and older would enjoy this short but stunning novel. show less

A friend has convinced me to try my hand this year for the first time at children's literature; but I don't actually know anything about children's literature, so am starting the process among other ways by first reading a stack of existing books that have been recommended to me. Kevin Henkes' Bird Lake Moon was recommended as a good example of books for older grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers (so roughly ages 10 to 13) that deal with dark material in a gentle yet realistic way; it's almost 40,000 words total, on the heavy side of such books, and also contains an expansive vocabulary that will be a pleasant challenge for younger readers. It's the story of two boys who one summer move next to each other in the sleepy Wisconsin cottage show more community of Bird Lake; one has a set of parents who are going through a divorce, which is why they've temporarily moved in with his mother's cantankerous grandparents, while the other has a brother who drowned at Bird Lake almost a decade ago, with this being the traumatized family's first trip back.

Things I took away from this book, as far as my own struggle to become a better children's writer...

--Although really well done, I can see here why people recommend so much that character-oriented novels for kids be loaded up with a lot of extra drama and unique events, with this book many times coming off as what I imagine is too subtle for many kids, and therefore with only a limited potential audience (although of course with that audience intensely passionate about the book, precisely for these reasons). Also, to reference my own reading habits as a kid, this book many times feels not like the best of someone like Judy Blume (where the characters create and drive the situations being played out) but more like her second-tier work, minor books like Deenie and Iggie's House where it feels like first an issue was picked ("I think I'll write a book about desegregation in the suburbs") and only then were characters created and a plotline written. Although I want to reiterate that Henkes does a great job with the material he's chosen here, just like adult literature these kinds of stories need to feel natural and not forced, which Henkes teeters just on the edge of many times.

--And speaking of all this, I thought Henkes treads a very fine line here as far as how dark is too dark for kids in the 10-to-13 range; this is one of the issues I find fascinating as an author, in that I imagine many of my own future kid's books will be dark in tone as well, and I'm trying to learn exactly where the balance is for the pre-YA crowd. I really loved for example that one of our heroes, Mitch, is in typical divorced-kid fashion acting out just all the time, in ways that are sometimes surprisingly destructive for a person who's supposed to be our protagonist; for example, as part of his ongoing secret campaign to convince his new neighbors to leave again, in the desperate hope that his own family could move in next-door so that his mom and grandparents will stop fighting all the time, he actually unchains their dog and lets it run away while the family is gone for the afternoon, in what could've easily led to the dog's death or permanent disappearance in the real world. The book is full of moments like these, uncomfortably real details of just how dysfunctional people can get in the middle of a divorce or the grieving of a dead child, a polarizing element that I imagine young readers will either intensely love or hate.

--And finally, I thought this book did a particularly great job at examining the subtle relationship between kids at different ages, which I'm told is a topic that's really loved by many child readers at this age; ten-year-old Mitch admires his neighbor Spencer for being twelve, Spencer admires Mitch back for his above-average athletic skills, while both have a begrudging tolerance only for their fairytale-spouting, costume-wearing chatterbox grade-school siblings. And I also think that Henkes does a great job at examining the heavily flawed parents that are around these kids, and how their only so-so dealings with these family dramas end up creating new legitimate hassles sometimes for the kids themselves; just to cite one good example, how Stewart's mother after a few days realizes that the cloud of her first son's death is hanging just too heavily over the entire environment for her comfort, even though the entire rest of the family has quite intensely fallen in love with being there by then. This is such a subtle thing in children's literature, the question of just how much of adult personalities and adult weaknesses one should add to the story in the first place -- because obviously most kids are at least a little fascinated with adult behavior, and especially when they get a chance to glance at truly adult reactions that they suspect they're not supposed to be seeing, although ultimately most kids prefer that the books they read be primarily about other kids, and of the ways those kids live their lives when the adults aren't around. I have a lot more to learn about the various ways that authors deal with this subject, and is something I always keep a close eye on whenever reading yet another character-oriented middle-school drama. show less

This quite serious book alternates chapters, telling part of the story from Mitch's point of view, and then part from Spencer's, back and forth...
Mitch is 12. His parents are getting divorced and he is temporarily living with his mother at her parents house. His grandparents are not typical of children's books. They are adults who love him, but don't really know what to do with a child and are largely irritated that he's living with them at all. Mitch desperately wants to move, and he wants to move into the vacant house next door.
Spencer's family owns the vacant house next door. They had not visited their vacation home in years, ever since Spencer's older brother drowned in the lake there. But they come back.
At first, Mitch is desperate show more to figure out a way to run off the "intruders", but in time, he meets Spencer and his sister, Lilly, and a friendship develops.
There are many launching pads for discussions with young adults here. Serious issues. Death of a sibling. Divorce. Trust...
I was somewhat dissatisfied by the ending - which wasn't really an ending. This is one of those books that just stops when it's ready. But it's a well told tale.
(Hard to believe the author of this deeply serious book is the same who wrote Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Chrysanthemum, and Owen's Way, and more - all fun, silly, picture books for younger children.) show less

When two boys come to spend the summer at Bird Lake, each is reeling from his own personal tragedy. Both boys arrive scarred and fragile, but as they become friends, the sharp edges of their lives smooth out and, slowly, they are able to start to heal.

One boy, displaced by divorce and seeking a permanent residence of his own, haunts the house next door to his grandparents' hoping the owners will pick up and leave so he can move in. Eerily, the family he is "haunting" lost a son, brother, friend to a tragic death at Bird Lake, making them prone to feeling spooked. Will the family move away or will two boys experiencing deep emotional turbulence find a serendipitous friendship?