Over the years I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with verse novels, you can read all about how it started over here.
Following the above article, I received some intriguing suggestions re where to look next… hence my discovery of Marilyn Hilton’s beautifully written Full Cicada Moon, published in 2017.
Mimi Yoshiko Oliver has just moved, within Amercia, to Vermont in 1969. Plucked out of the comfort and safety of her extended family she has a new world to negotiate. Half black, half Japanese she has to deal with the reactions of others to her appearance, their stereotypical opinions as she simply tries to find her way, whilst heading one step closer to her ultimate dream… of becoming an astronaut.
Hilton has written the entire novel in verse, and it flows… beautifully. Plenty of short chapters fly through Mimi’s year – we observe her grow, we observe her determination and intelligence, we observe her blossoming friendships.
Written in first person, the reader gets a wonderful insight into Mimi’s life, her reactions to the comments and looks from others as she negotiates her first year at a new school, in a new state.
The backdrop, the Apollo 11 mission to space, adds excitement, drama and a great sense of place and mood to the novel.
Full Cicada Moon is a touching, emphatic novel.
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