Moon Pie

September 26, 2011
In a story that’s simultaneously lighthearted and unsettling, Mason (the Quigleys series) successfully depicts the tumultuous mix of love, anger, disappointment, and confusion that a parent’s alcoholism brings to a family. Keeping the focus on stalwart, responsible 11-year-old Martha, who has been taking on increasing household responsibilities since her mother’s death two years earlier, Mason eschews didacticism and melodrama, closely portraying Martha’s puzzlement about the changes in her once safe and reassuring father. Not until a new friend points out the obvious—her father is a drunk—does she understand his baffling behavior. Martha’s struggles to wean her father off alcohol, keep her grandparents from calling Social Services, and help her five-year-old brother, Tug, feel safe are credibly and movingly rendered. Secondary characters are satisfyingly drawn: always ravenous Tug; their stern but well-meaning grandparents; and, especially, Martha’s best friend, theatrical, cross-dressing Marcus. Martha’s free time is spent sewing costumes for Marcus and aiding him in his filmmaking ventures; her eventual turn to acting herself, though hinted at earlier in the book, is somewhat surprising, but makes for a rewarding finale. Ages 9–13.

October 1, 2011
British author Mason has conjured a rarity indeed--a tremendously charming, unflinching account of a parent's downward spiral. Eleven-year-old Martha Luna can't stand it anymore. Her widowed father's been acting strange in recent months--rather like a wild gibbon--and her 5-year-old brother Tug ("famous for eating and a trick he did with spit") isn't helping. It's on the über-responsible Martha's to-do list to "Check Dad (more than once, if necessary)"--but it takes a savvy outsider to help her see that her newly clownish, accident-prone father who rents pink limos and wakes her up for midnight picnics is not simply eccentric, but an alcoholic. Grandma ("scary in a well-spoken sort of way") and Grandpa dutifully take care of the children while Dad's in rehab, but sanity comes in the delightfully improbable form of a flamboyant, cross-dressing 12-year-old filmmaker named Marcus who offers Martha practical advice and starring roles in his speed films of "golden classics." While the dialogue is realistic and rat-a-tat-tat quick, lyrical prose wends its way throughout, and Martha, in a sea of moods, compares the moon to everything from a stain to a bit of bone. Love conquers all in this big-hearted and heartbreaking story of Martha, Tug and their errant father who, in time, stops acting like a wild gibbon and finds his way home. (Fiction. 9-12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from January 1, 2012

Gr 5-7-A lighthearted, cartoon-style cover design belies a serious and compelling story of a family in crisis. Martha Luna, 11, has been holding her family together since her mother's death, but when they move to a new house, she and her little brother, Tug, notice that their unemployed dad is acting "strange." He takes foolish chances and falls off the roof, and sometimes disappears, leaving them home alone. When it becomes apparent that he is an alcoholic and his driving while intoxicated lands Martha in the hospital, the children are placed in the temporary custody of their strict maternal grandparents, and Tug is unable to adjust. Grandma softens only when talking to Martha about her mother, a talented actress. When Martha, costume designer for her outrageously flamboyant friend Marcus's speed movies, discovers her own acting talent, events are set in motion that bring their recovered father back into their lives and lead to a triumphant climax and real hope for reuniting their family. The brilliance of this novel is its point of view: narrated in third person, it nevertheless plants readers firmly in Martha's skin, skillfully conveying her extraordinary sense of responsibility, growing dread, resignation, and, ultimately, self-realization. Strong characterization is built by the continuous layering of small details. Readers know Tug by his innocent questions and observations, and Marcus's over-the-top remarks and behavior (think Kurt on TV's Glee) provide much-needed comic relief. While the setting is England, the story could take place anywhere. Readers who enjoyed David Almond's My Dad's a Birdman (2008) and Amy Hest's Remembering Mrs. Rossi (2007, both Candlewick) will appreciate this more in-depth, touching, and absorbing novel of a family's disintegration, repair, and promise.-Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2011
Grades 5-8 Between the sweet, cartoonlike cover art and the Hollywood-style ending comes this rather dark story of two kids dealing with their alcoholic father. It is a significant shift for British novelist Mason, who has previously written a lighthearted series for children about the Quigley family. This book opens with 11-year-old Martha ordering her father down from a drainpipe; he has lost his key and is trying to climb into their house. It takes many chapters for Martha to figure out that her father has a drinking problem, but forgive her: life hasn't been easy since her supercompetent mother, also a talented actress, died suddenly. Martha's father hasn't coped well with the loss, so Martha cooks, cleans, and watches her five-year-old brother, Tug, until her maternal grandparents alert social services. Mason skillfully handles this challenging material by providing some comic relief through two of Martha's friends and using a third-person narrator to give some distance to the children's situation. Although the ending strains credibility, the happy outcome is what readers will be craving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
When Martha's alcoholic dad hits rock bottom, she and her brother are sent to live with their strict maternal grandparents. Martha escapes her dreary new life by acting in her flamboyant friend's brief remakes of famous movies. Mason shows keen insights into human foibles and family dynamics in this humorous and poignant portrait of a believable girl and her imperfect but loving family.

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

November 1, 2011
Suddenly, Dad is "strange." Unkempt, overly boisterous or listless, forgetful, secretive, unpredictable, and unemployed. Martha, eleven, wonders what can be wrong; finally, after a disastrous dinner, a friend with an alcoholic father of her own asks, "So, how long's your dad been drinking?" Responsible Martha, who since Mum's death two years before has cooked and cleaned and looked after her little brother Tug and whose mantra is "Someone had to keep their head," tries to manage the situation herself; but when Dad hits rock bottom, Martha and Tug are sent to live with their strict maternal grandparents and forbidden to see him. Martha escapes her dreary new life by taking up acting in her flamboyant friend Marcus's brief remakes of famous movies, and this leads to an audition for the lead role in an Anne of Green Gables film. Although this latest development stretches credulity, Mason skillfully blends it into the story of Dad's recovery -- and of Martha's as well, for the book is less about Dad than about the ripple effects of an alcoholic family member. Mason, author of the hilarious (and equally very British) Quigley family series, shows the same keen insights into human foibles and family dynamics here, but although there's much humor (especially in the interactions between Tug and Marcus), this novel isn't played for laughs: it's a poignant portrait of a believable girl and her imperfect but loving family. martha v. parravano

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)