Keeping the Moon
By: Sarah Dessen


The book, Keeping the Moon is written by Sarah Dessen. She has also six other young adult novels. Her books, That Summer, Someone Like You, Dreamland, This Lullaby, along with Keeping the Moon have all been chosen as Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association. This Lullaby was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize. Sarah Dessen says that she has been writing for as far back as she can remember and never thought she’d become an author until she graduated from college and just couldn’t stop writing. She now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Keeping the Moon is a young adult, fictional novel. It takes place in present time Colby, North Carolina. The main characters are Nicole “Colie” Sparks, Isabel, Morgan, and Norman. Colie is a fifteen-year-old girl who used the get bullied for her weight when she was younger during her “Fat Years”, until her mom, Kiki Sparks, became a famous fitness guru and personal trainer. Once she lost weight, she now gets bullied because of a reputation she doesn’t deserve. Colie’s mom travels a lot for her fitness work so she goes to stay with her Aunt Mira in Colby, North Carolina.

Colie is determined to make something out of this summer. While in Colby, she gets a job at the Last Chance Bar and Grill. There she meets two girls, Isabel and Morgan, whom she becomes best friends with. She also makes a guy friend, Norman, who stays at her Aunt Mira’s house and works at the Last Chance Bar and Grill with her.

The summer isn’t even half over and she’s already made more friends in the few weeks that she’s been there than she has back home. With a new job, new friends, and now new look, courtesy of Isabel, Colie is almost positive this summer will be the best by far. Or is it? Colie soon finds out her aunt is the laughingstock of the town, and now her troubles have made their way back to her. Will this summer be all Colie had hoped it would be? Will she ever escape the taunting?

The theme of Keeping the Moon is that you should truly get to know someone before you judge them and to give everyone a chance. The tone of this story is clever. It is told in a way a fifteen-year-old would see the world. The emotion in Keeping the Moon varies throughout the novel. Colie is at first very sad and lonely until she meets Isabel and Morgan, then becomes more hopeful and sort of breaks out of her shell as the story progresses and as she spends more time with them.

I’d recommend Keeping the Moon to anyone, but mainly girls. The reason I said, mainly girls, is because it is told in a fifteen-year-old girl’s perspective on the world. Also because some girls might be able to relate to the feelings and emotions Colie has throughout the book. Keeping the Moon is a book that makes you want to continue reading until the end to find out what happens. It is a great storyline that I’m sure many would enjoy.