Bird Lake Moon

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Told in alternating voices, this smart and engaging middle grade novel from the beloved Kevin Henkes is the story of two boys coming together in friendship as they struggle with family conflicts and tragedy.

There are ghosts at Bird Lake, and they're haunting Mitch and Spencer. Not the Halloween kind, but ghosts of the past. Memories of how life was beforebefore the divorce, before the accident. Can their ghosts bring Mitch and Spencer together, as friends Or will their secrets keep them apart

Mitch feels isolated at his grandparents house and cant help hating his father, who walked out on him and his mom two and a half weeks earlier. Spencers family has decided its finally time to return to Bird Lake, years after his brother, Matty, drowned there. Both boys arrive at the lake scarred and fragile, but as they become friends, the sharp edges of their lives smooth out and, slowly, they are able to start healing.

Superbly crafted. A must have for every library.School Library Journal(starred review)

In a novel as tender as his acclaimedOlives Ocean, Henkes probes the psyches of two boys facing family conflicts.Publishers Weekly(starred review)

Reviews

"In a novel as tender as his acclaimed Olive's Ocean, Henkes probes the psyches of two boys facing family conflict." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Henkes knows children and their secrets, and readers will lean close to hear the whispers." -- ALA Booklist (starred review)

"Superbly crafted . . . with humor and just the right amount of tension to make this a significant and highly readable book." -- School Library Journal (starred review)

"This quiet, beautifully told story deals delicately but realistically with the boys' emotions." -- Kliatt (starred review)

"Henkes deftly locates Mitch's pain and confusion, delivering a novel that's quiet, nuanced, and redemptive." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Unpretentious, spare, and timeless in the way of summers by the lake." -- The Horn Book

Author Bio

Kevin Henkes is the author and illustrator of more than fifty critically acclaimed and award-winning picture books, beginning readers, and novels. He received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon in 2005, and Waiting won a Caldecott Honor and Geisel Honor in 2016. Kevin Henkes is also the creator of a number of picture books featuring his mouse characters, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Lilly's Big Day and Wemberly Worried, the Caldecott Honor Book Owen, and the beloved Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. His most recent mouse character, Penny, was introduced in Penny and Her Song; her story continued in Penny and Her Doll and Penny and Her Marble (a Geisel Honor Book). Bruce Handy, in a New York Times Book Review piece about A Good Day, wrote, "It should be said: Kevin Henkes is a genius." Kevin Henkes received two Newbery Honors for novels-one for The Year of Billy Miller, and the other for Olive's Ocean. Also among his fiction for older readers are the novels Junonia, Bird Lake Moon, The Birthday Room, and Sun & Spoon. Kevin Henkes has been published by Greenwillow Books since the release of his first book, All Alone, in 1981. His fiftieth book, the picture book Egg, was published in January 2017. Most recently, he is the author of In the Middle of Fall, Winter Is Here, Summer Song, A Parade of Elephants, Sweeping Up the Heart, and Penny and Her Sled. He lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin. www.kevinhenkes.com.