The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill

From Goodreads,

"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 and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver 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 enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule--but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her--even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.

The acclaimed author of The Witch’s Boy has created another epic coming-of-age fairy tale destined to become a modern classic."

Goodreads - The Girl Who Drank The Moon

Awards:

• Andre Norton Award Nominee for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (2016)
• Newbery Medal (2017)
• Charlotte Huck Honor Book (2017)
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (2018)

Favorite quote from The Girl Who Drank The Moon: 

"Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there.  Some of the most wonderful things in the world are invisible.  Trusting in invisible things makes them more powerful and wondrous.  You'll see."

As a teacher I am constantly encouraging my students to read more books and to find something that interests them.  I love making suggestions to kids and pride myself in reading books on their level.  I've even had students make recommendations to me, which I typically listen to and then consider purchasing or reading the book.  About a year ago, a student suggested to her teacher that she should read The Girl Who Drank The Moon.  Unfortunately the teacher responded with, "Oh I don't read that much.  You should tell her, she reads all the time."  The student looked disappointed with her teacher, but eagerly came to me and shared why I should read the book.  While it didn't seem like a book I would read I went ahead and purchased it through Scholastic.  I told the student and she was so excited that I took her recommendation and bought the book.  I took the book home with high hopes of reading it soon.  Fast forward a year later and I finally got around to reading it.  My boyfriend and I decided to take on the challenge of reading all the books on the Newbery Award list.  We wanted to start with the first book that received the Newbery Award, but couldn't find it in stores.  So we decided to start with the last awarded book which was The Girl Who Drank The Moon.  He actually started reading before I did, but shockingly I finished the book weeks before him.  (He still hasn't finished the book.)  It took me six short days to read this book and I loved every minute of it. 

This book starts with the village leaving a baby in the woods as an offering to the witch.  There are myths and legends around the witch and what she does with the children, but what they don't known is that the witch Xan isn't horrible at all.  She doesn't quite understand why they keep leaving babies in the forest, but she always rescues them and takes care of them as she walks them to the town on the other side of the forest.  She feeds these children starlight as they make the walk to their new home.  But one night she reaches up to the sky and accidentally feeds the baby moonlight.  This moonlight is much more powerful than starlight and the child is filled with a magic that cannot be contained.  Xan makes the decision to keep the child as her own, but the decision sets them on journey greater than they ever imagined.

My boyfriend started this book before I did and naturally he stayed ahead of me in the book for a few days.  We talked about the book until I passed him.  Once I passed him he asked me not to talk to him about it since he wasn't reading it.  He felt that the book was very slow at the beginning and that he was trying to figure out where the book was headed.  I do have to agree that the book started out slow, but once I finished it I realized that it was slowly laying the backstory for everything to come.  I ended up binging the book just a few short days after I started it.  I think a lot of my desire to finish the book quickly was because of two reasons.  One was that there were many characters and I wanted to figure out how they all fit together, and two the book progressed over a long period of time.  Since there were so many characters I was constantly trying to figure out how they all fit together and what their role was in this story.  I changed my mind on who the antagonist was at least three different times, and I honestly think a lot of that has to do with the slow progression of time.  Unlike most books that progress over weeks or months, this book progresses over years.  I was excited to see how all of the characters were going to age and mature, and what path they would go down.  The many characters and the book progressing over a long period of time really added a sense of excitement and mystery as I tried to figure everything out before I reached the end of the book.

As I said above, there were lots of characters in this book.  And while it was fun to figure out how they all fit together, it was difficult to figure out who each chapter was focusing on.  This book is not told by one main character.  Instead, each chapter is told by a different character in the book, which is nice because it gives different views, but is also a pain to keep up with everyone.  At the beginning it was easy to keep up with the characters who the chapter was focused on.  But as the book progressed more and more characters were focused on in the chapters.  There were a few times when I was wondering why we were even following the actions of a certain character because up until that point they had been just a secondary character in the book.  I found it confusing because we had so many different characters who we were following from chapter to chapter.  It didn't help any that there was no pattern to the chapters.  They honestly just bounced from character to character to character.  I think it would have been easier to keep up with if the chapters had been somehow labeled with who was telling each chapter.  

Overall, I understand why it was selected as the 2017 Newbery winner.  It is a book that has lots of depth and imagination.  This is a perfect book for some of the student's I have.  I give this book 5 out of 5 stars even though I struggled with the chapters.  Hopefully my boyfriend will get the book finished so we can finally talk about it.