Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the Forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey.
One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna's thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge -- with dangerous consequences . . .
Staff Choice: Iris
In the forest near the oppressive Protectorate lives a witch, who sometimes takes babies from one place to another and feeds them on starlight. One time, she accidentally feeds a baby moonlight and the girl becomes imbibed with magic. As the girl grows, so do her powers - changing everything.
This middle grade fantasy has many diverging story lines, which in the end somehow all tie together neatly. It's so full of love that reading it made me totally warm and fuzzy inside. There's also a dragon!
Staff Choice: Sophie
This book is written with so much love. Heaping armfuls of it. It drips off every page, and it doesn't forget sorrow, the shadow side of love, either.
The setting is enchanting (a forest on top of a volcano, a bog, a dark tower, a treehouse), as are the characters (witches, swamp monsters, dragons, Sisters with a sharp edge). It made me chuckle and it made me sigh. And I adored the love and kindness that wove itself into every chapter.
It repeated itself a bit too often and I'm not entirely sure about the ending, but then, I'm a doddering grown-up, so what do I know, really. If I were 10 right now this book would be among my most treasured possessions, for sure. And that's exactly who it's written for so I hope many kids read this book!
(2020)
