Review of Moon Shadow by Erin Downing

Moon Shadow

By Erin Downing

Published by Aladdin

May 16, 2017

Hardcover Purchased from Amazon

Goodreads Summary:

Thirteen-year-old Lucia Frank discovers that she can become the girl she’s always wanted to be with the help of a little “moon magic” in this charming novel about the value of friendship, family, and finding yourself.

Lucia Frank has never had time for her mom’s “new age” nonsense. She doesn’t believe in any of that stuff. All she wants is to figure out how to get her best friend, Will, back and cope with her parents looming divorce. But then something strange happens on the night of her thirteenth birthday.

When the eclipsed moon slips into the shadow of the earth, Lucia’s Shadow slips out. Now hidden in a moonstone, the Shadow waits for Lucia to sleep so it can come out to play.

Lucia’s Shadow seems unlike her in almost every way: daring, outspoken, and unwilling to let anyone push her around. But it actually isn’t the anti-Lucia…in fact, her Shadow is very much like the person Lucia wishes she could be. At first, Lucia is eager to undo whatever magic happened on her birthday so life can get back to normal. But when she realizes her Shadow is doing and saying things she has only dreamed about, she wonders if maybe things aren’t all bad.

With a little help from her Shadow, she’s turning into the kind of girl she’s always wanted to be.

My Thoughts:

I had been hearing a lot about this book at the beginning of the year and was very excited to finally find the time to read it! I really enjoyed the premise of the book, the idea that maybe the main character's, Lucia's, shadow self has been going out and doing things while she thinks she is asleep. At first Lucia is completely freaked out when she realizes what might be happening, but then she starts realizing that her shadow self has been doing things that she only wishes she had the courage to do. She eventually needs to figure out if she has the courage to be the person she wants to be without the help of her shadow self. 
Overall a very intriguing story about having the courage to be your own self and about working to make the things happen in your life that you want to happen.

I would recommend this for grades 4 and up!