Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast

Andrea: I’m Andrea.

Elizabeth:And I'm Elizabeth.

Andrea: Join us as we chat about sci-fi and fantasy books and beyond.

Elizabeth: Looking for a little escape from reality? So are we.

Andrea: So, welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses.

Elizabeth: In this episode, we're gonna chat about The Girl Who Drank the Moon and a few related topics.

Andrea: Let's get started.

Andrea: So our full moon theme continues, but this time we picked a children's book.

Elizabeth: It's called The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. And it was published in 2016, but it won the Newbery Award in 2017. Excuse me, I should be saying the Newbery Medal, I guess, right? Technically it's the Newbery Medal. ' Usually it would be, like a gold round, like...

Andrea: That's what's on mine.

Elizabeth: Yeah. That one.

Andrea: Yeah.

Elizabeth: That one, that one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mine doesn't have that.

Andrea: This John Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution to American Literature for children.

Elizabeth: It says that all in the medal?

Andrea: So, so very tiny print. There's even more in the circle around it. It says "Awarded annually by the Children's Librarians section of the American Library Association."

Elizabeth: That's cool.

Andrea: Yeah.

Andrea: So it explains it all on the cover.

Andrea: Anyway, part of the reason I was excited for this book was because I don't really read that many children's books in general, and last year I read a children's book as part of a book club, and it was really good. I actually cried a lot. I wasn't expecting to be emotional for a children's book. It was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness . It was about a 12-year-old boy who is dealing with his mother's terminal illness. It was a super emotional read. I think it takes a lot of skill to write a book that can be both entertaining for kids and for adults. And so I'm trying to maybe read [00:02:00] one children's book a year.

Elizabeth: That's a really great goal. I never would've thought that or said that out loud to myself. But yeah, I could keep behind that.

Andrea: Have you read any children's books?

Elizabeth: Yeah, I also read in the last, maybe a couple years ago The Absolutely True Story of
a Part-Time Indian* by Sherman Alexi about a, I mean, he's maybe 12 or 14 member of the Spokane Indian Tribe in Spokane, Washington. And he lives on the reservation, but he's like a really smart kid. And he's getting bullied, if I remember correctly, this is a little, maybe some months ago now that I read it, but he's getting bullied, I think, on the res. So then he starts going to a high school off the reservation, and then he's part of their basketball team. So then at some point they have to come back and play the res team in a basketball tournament. And, you know, so he's playing against like his fellow tribe members and neighbors and people he's known his whole life. But it's got a ton of cartoons in it and it's actually quite funny. It's very funny.
Andrea: As someone who's not a parent, to necessarily say that you need like a reminder about how aware and intelligent kids are, and like how much they pay attention to and how much they pick up on, 'cause they pick up on everything. And so, you know, it's kind of fun , as an adult, to then be reading children's literature or of the younger side of young adult literature. It's fun to be reminded of those things because you're reading them. But yeah, it's, very funny. Like I think everyone should read it.
You know, that middle grade school timeframe is when a lot of kids start to read longer books and start to maybe develop an interest in reading rather than it just being an assignment. So reading stories about being bullied is maybe

Elizabeth: Unfortunately a

Andrea: you know, a way to,

Elizabeth: also at that

Andrea: yeah.

Elizabeth: Unfortunately, God kid's the worst. They're so mean to each other. I mean people are mean to each other, but like kids are really mean to each other.

Andrea: There's no real bullying that takes place in The Girl Who Drank the Moon. It's more about her discovering her own power and learning who she [00:04:00] is and sort of that self-awareness.

Andrea: It's set in a really interesting world. Kind of how children's books are able to simplify things, to discuss larger themes, this world is very simplistic. There's the bog and the forest and the Free Cities and everything is, simple, but yet expansive. How did you find the setting?

Elizabeth: The world that it describes is very small, it seems. I mean, you can imagine it on a larger scale, but yeah, there's the Protectorate and the Free Cities and the forest in between them basically. Some worlds in science fiction and fantasy are like more well realized or more well drawn. The details are more filled in, and this one was on the lesser side. So I guess, it felt kinda like a small world. Not that I had like to a negative point by any means. But, but yeah, it did seem sort of simplistic, but you know, it's also children's book too, and it's not really long, so there's not necessarily tons of space for a fully realized world to be, drawn.

Andrea: The way it was described in my mind, I pictured [00:05:00] something like an anime by Hayao Miyazaki, like Spirited Away, where these sort of fantastical creatures are drudging along and everything comes to life. It felt like a fun childlike imagery. So I enjoyed that, not every book I read is like that.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Andrea: Once in a while. That's something fun to read, but that's not something I would read every day.

Andrea: The story was explained through a couple of different narrators. You know, there's the main story where it's following the girl and the witch and then the carpenter slash husband. But then there's also a few chapters that are written in italics that are like the stories being told by the mothers of the town.

Andrea: Did you pick up on that?

Elizabeth: Or was it by the girl herself though, as an adult?

Andrea: I think it was just like several different mothers.

Elizabeth: I thought it was all, I guess I read it all as the same voice. That yes, there's like the third [00:06:00] person, omniscient narrator throughout the whole thing. So you sort of follow along with these different characters. And then broken up in between was then this part in italics that I took to be the main character Luna. The main character Luna talking to the dragon?
Elizabeth: Yeah, so there's Protectorate. They, they're trying to appease the gods or appease the witch or something. So they sacrifice a child and it's the youngest child that has been born in the past year is then the one ends up being sacrificed. And so then this little girl is sacrificed at the beginning. They're like torn away from the parents.

Elizabeth: I mean, it's, the whole thing is tragic really, but it doesn't necessarily

Andrea: And just to, to clarify by being sacrificed, they're placed in the woods and the witch comes along and picks up the baby. There's no actual child sacrifice.

Elizabeth: No, there's no, no, but there. And so then the witch, you're at the beginning of the book as you learn about the sacrifice, it sounds like the witch is the bad person. But, as it turns out, the witch , in the forest ends up being the good person. But she will rescue these [00:07:00] children, 'cause otherwise they're left to be like devoured by the animals of the forest. The townspeople think that these children have died, because they just leave them out in this, forest clearing. But no. So the witch comes along every year and she saves the child, and then she takes the child over to the Free Cities. And then the child is essentially adopted into various families that she sets up in the Free Cities. So , you know, the book is sort of following this little girl. So this main character Luna is being sacrificed. And so then the witch picks her up and instead makes a change to how she usually takes these children. And she feeds moonlight to the little girl. And so then she like puts magic into the girl. So instead of then leaving her with one of the families in the Free Cities, she raises the little girl herself.

Elizabeth: So the book is basically following this little girl, Luna. As she's growing up under the care of the witch, who's actually good. But then also there are these two other characters.

Elizabeth: There is the bog monster

Andrea: Glerk

Elizabeth: Glerk. Yeah,

Andrea: I really like the name Glerk.

Elizabeth: That sounds like Groot. I'm Groot. [00:08:00] but yeah, the, the bog monster Glerk, and I think a tiny little dragon because he is,

Andrea: Yes. Who wants to be a Simply Enormous or something Dragon.

Elizabeth: He's just a tiny little one though. But he thinks he's really big, but he is actually a tiny little dragon. And then in the end, he gets big, right? He then starts to grow, and that's part of

Andrea: Yes.

Elizabeth: Then he gets really big and then says spoiler. But for the most of the story, he's just a tiny little dragon.

Elizabeth: So I pictured it, I don't know where this came from, but the parts at italics, I actually thought that was Luna talking to the dragon, in like 20 years or something. As if, recounting their story. and I don't know. Did I read up too much into that?

Andrea: So I think at some point when they were talking about, Ethyne, the wife of the carpenter.

Elizabeth: Oh

Andrea: Who. She went to the tower for a while, but she was too inquisitive and she asked too many questions, and all of her questions seemed to align with the questions that were brought up in the stories that were being told by the mothers.

Andrea: Right. [00:09:00] So I think the idea was that it was sort of the

Elizabeth: hmm.

Andrea: anonymous town's mothers that are passing on these oral

Elizabeth: Oral

Andrea: Stories to their kids, the oral histories. That's why it's not labeled because it's just kind of the oral traditions of the village. And by the end of the book, the final oral history has changed and through the actions of the book history has been changed.

Elizabeth: All right.

Andrea: So

Elizabeth: Well, I,

Andrea: how I read.

Elizabeth: And, and sure as you say that I realize like that actually could have been it, and I just was reading it wrong. I don't know.

Andrea: There was a lot in this book that was meant to be poetic and read in different ways. So not to say that you had the wrong interpretation of it, just a different one.

Elizabeth: It's funny you say that though something I thought about as I was reading the book is... so a dragon I feel like is something that you can picture relatively easily in terms of what a dragon looks like, but a bog monster is very open to interpretation. And I'm curious, how did you picture the bog monster?

Elizabeth: What was your bog monster like?

Andrea: I pictured him as like a giant kind of salamander creature, or like gila monsteresque.

Elizabeth:But he had six arms, right?

Andrea: And at only at one point it said,

Elizabeth: up. Yeah. There were six arms. Yeah. I don't know why, but it was more human shaped, like I pictured six,

Andrea: Oh,

Elizabeth: human arms and then like maybe a really, old man grotesque face. I don't know why.

Andrea: Weird.

Elizabeth: And I was, was reading, and I was picturing this to myself. I was like, this is actually a really strange thing for me to be picturing. What I have in my mind. If they were turned into a movie, this is never what that character would actually look like. It's kind of a, a really odd, weird, I don't know why that was what I was imagining. Then maybe about halfway through I was like, maybe I should be picturing something different instead of this like, human monster thing.

Elizabeth: Like imagine, Freddy Kruger style, you know, like weird sort of [00:11:00] grotesque face.

Andrea: Wow.

Elizabeth: I'm like, not exactly Freddy Krueger, but just kind of in that vein and this really elongated human torso with four arms. I, I don't know.

Andrea: Pictured like a talking like lizard, salamander creature. Not human at all in my mind. Crawling on the ground most of the time. Yeah.

Elizabeth: And mine was,

Andrea: That's interesting that we had,

Elizabeth: Two legs. And then these four arms.

Andrea: That's how he was described a little bit. There's a time where he mentioned he used to fight with swords and

Elizabeth: By using four arms

Andrea: He used all four of his arms.

Elizabeth: Oh

Andrea: So I did have a harder time imagining that

Elizabeth: Giant salamander

Andrea: part.

Elizabeth: Fighting with swords.

Elizabeth: It is funny.

Elizabeth:Yeah, you mentioned that there's this sort of poetic feeling to it. I definitely got that sense too. It almost felt kind of dreamlike in a way. Not really like fever dream , but just sort of wistful, ethereal kind of. So it did seem like there was a lot open to interpretation and kind of thinking about it now, like that's something that's really, [00:12:00] captivating about the book is that more than in many other books, you can bring your own interpretation to things.

Elizabeth: So, sort of thinking about other parts of the book there's the little girl's mother you know, the biological mother, like the mother that had her baby stolen from her, that then became the main character Luna. She ends up, locked in a tower 'cause she basically kind of goes crazy after the loss of her child or her infant. And one thing that kind of tough sometimes with stories is when you can find a hole in the plot . Because not that it ruins it by any means. You know, sort of like and maybe there's sort of like some nostalgia to this, but like the cartoon, Little Mermaid that the plot hole is that, you see her sign her name to the contract, "Ariel".

Elizabeth: So, you know, she knows how to write her name. So she could just write her name down at some point and be like, just say this word, you know, or like, write her name in the sand as soon as she arrives on the beach. Like, come on. But that doesn't mean that I don't like Little Mermaid. I love Little Mermaid, it's very much nostalgic from childhood.

Elizabeth: But [00:13:00] anyway. Yeah, the, I sort of felt like , a plot hole that I thought of that sort of feels like a Little Mermaid that like didn't really ruin anything, . So she at one point makes these paper birds. She makes like thousands upon thousands of them that then she just amasses, inside her prison cell and then at one point they break out of the prison cell. Well why didn't she do that

Andrea: A long time ago.

Elizabeth: I suppose maybe the power of a bunch of paper birds would take a lot of paper birds, but , I don't think that needed 12 years of folding paper birds. She probably was magic enough to break the wall of the prison cell. I mean, come on.

Andrea: Probably, but I think the impetus for her getting that final motivation was seeing the carpenter venture forth. And she finally was like, okay, I gotta help. She was watching him the whole time and he was gonna start his trek into the forest and, so that kind of motivated her to leave.

Andrea: But yes, if she had enough power to just break out earlier, it would've saved a lot [00:14:00] of time, but then there would be no story right.

Elizabeth: But yeah.

Andrea: I think things did come together quite nicely in the end, the way all the narratives converged into this big confrontation. And that's I think where a big part of the life lesson is too. It's not eye for an eye. They're like, yes, this person was bad, but we don't have to necessarily treat, the bad person horribly. We can be merciful in some sense. And that the person that was preying on people's sorrows had her own sorrow hidden within, right?

Elizabeth: Oh yeah,

Andrea: She is like Saint Ignatia or something, but she's not a saint. She's sister Ignatia.

Elizabeth: Yeah. What was her sorrow? You're gonna have to remind me.

Andrea: She lost people or her town .

Elizabeth: Oh, was that, from the volcano, right?

Andrea: Right.

Elizabeth: Yeah, yeah.

Andrea: But it was also a little bit of her own fault because she tried to escape and she left everybody behind, I think, unless, there was another [00:15:00] time where her whole village was lost. That was a little unclear of like, how many times had this history been repeated? How many times had the volcano gone off and destroyed everybody?

Elizabeth: That wasn't clear, but it did seem like. Oh, and once again, I mean, it sounds like we kind of brought different interpretations to things at times or, you know, like you remember some of the details differently, I suppose. My impression was that that was something that had happened over and over and over again through history and that like...

Andrea: Right? So actually now that I'm thinking about it and talking with you, I'm like, yeah, and the stones that said, "Don't forget". I wonder how many times had this happened where they said, "Don't forget". "Don't forget".

Elizabeth: And then that explains why they were sacrificing these infants as well, because then the whole thing was to appease the gods that then would blow up the volcano. Right? So you sort of wonder like, okay, so if it has happened over and over and over throughout history, what did the previous civilizations, how did they, respond to volcanoes and volcanic activity and the massive changes that would happen from [00:16:00] that. And so , you could venture to guess that probably there have been many different religions throughout the, the

Andrea: Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth: book that has happened, with this volcano exploding and over and over again. Yeah. And so it's like, that's just this iteration, this go around. This was their response was to sacrifice these infants once a year on whatever their Sacrifice Day was.
Andrea: I, I hesitate to bring this up because I don't know if this is meant to have, Christian allegories within it, or if it's just a coincidence, but it seems like it's too big of a plot item to be a coincidence that he was a carpenter and Jesus was a carpenter. Like,

Elizabeth: yeah,

Andrea: that

Elizabeth: Yeah. No, I could see that.

Andrea: He is the savior character in the book.

Andrea: He goes and saves the day.

Elizabeth: yeah. And then they, they like fully save everyone from the volcano ever erupting ever again. That the whole point is that it's not just saved this time around, but saved forever.

Andrea: It, because it did erupt. Sorry, [00:17:00] spoiler.

Elizabeth: yeah. Yeah. And then what?

Andrea: It did erupt

Elizabeth: Then someone jumps into it to stop it from erupting, right?

Elizabeth: Wait yeah.

Andrea: Before. Before someone jumped into the volcano, Zosimos.

Andrea: There are so many names in here that I don't know how to pronounce.

Andrea: Yeah. Apparently Xan like XAN is a name that is a shortened form of Alexander or Alexandra in real life, but I think it's just made up for the book.

Elizabeth: But that doesn't mean that all of the names are made up though. 'cause then the main character, her name is Luna.

Andrea: Right.

Elizabeth: back to

Andrea: And that does have a lot of symbolism.

Elizabeth: Yeah, so Luna is the main character based off of the ancient Roman religion and myth surrounding the moon. Which of course then you realize definitely not a coincidence. You know, I think you, you can definitely say this as like, comparing the carpenter to Jesus and then comparing this book then to the Bible if you took that next step further. So the little girl, right, she's fed moonlight as she's being whisked away from this clearing as she's being sacrificed as an infant. And the witch feeds her moonlight and then [00:18:00] her name is Luna. It's like, of course, and then of course in the title of the book being The Girl Who Drank the Moon. So it does make sense, but definitely there are like other Luna names in science fiction fantasy , you know, there's Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.

Andrea: And I think I would be afraid to name my child, Luna. About them being teased as like, loony Luna. You know? I mean, that's the thing they do in Harry Potter.

Elizabeth: Ooh,

Andrea: And the term lunatic actually comes from Luna the Moon. So it rhymes because they're related.

Elizabeth: right. Well, no, I was just about to say like, okay, going back to like kids being bullied and, you know, that kids are so mean to each other. I think it's hard as you're naming a child to be thinking about, what possible nicknames could be made out of it. So if somebody named their child Luna, and they were like, "It's our beautiful daughter Luna", and then you think to yourself like, "Looney Luna".

Elizabeth: Yeah, it's tough. I feel like that's a hard way to like name a child because of course, kids make fun of other kids, they're gonna find ways to make fun of 'em. You know, whether it's some sort of pun off their name or some other way. So , [00:19:00] I don't know. Yeah.
Andrea: It could be just the red sweatshirt they wear or something. They're gonna, they'll just be,

Elizabeth: That like the

Andrea: yeah.

Elizabeth: Like popular kid who's also mean and a bully, like, said something about it and then it gets turned into a thing. Right. I mean, totally.

Elizabeth: Going back to lunatic, I didn't ever think about it actually. Of course, I knew Luna and Moon, like the, a lunar eclipse, like the lunar cycle, like yeah, the lunar module or whatever to land on the moon. I never thought about it with lunatic though, but sure that the moon always has this connotation that "ooh, stuff happens in the full moon". Right.

Andrea: So I guess until about 1700, there was a common belief that the moon actually caused illnesses like epilepsy and other

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Andrea: Diseases. Yeah. And just blame it on the moon. It's the full moon.

Elizabeth: People still do that, so working in the healthcare industry I've worked on labor and delivery floors before and it would always be a thing that would be said, especially on the night shift that like, oh, it's a [00:20:00] full moon tonight, that there's gonna be some crazy stuff that comes in.

Elizabeth: I sort of wonder, how much of that is true and how much of that is just sort of healthcare superstitions that continue to be passed on from generation to generation of healthcare worker. I'm sure the ER is always , especially the night shift in the ER is always aware when it's a full moon and Yeah.

Elizabeth: Yeah. It's kind of funny. So how much of this, this sort of placebo effect that you, expect crazy things to happen, so then they happen or you pay attention to the crazier things more than you would on other nights, but if it's just the same every night.

Andrea: So the moon is also a symbol of duality as well. And I think that came across in the book a couple of places. I mean, we talked a little bit about how, it had the theme of history repeating itself, but in some ways the grandmother and the daughter Luna were opposites. They talked about how she had long silver hair versus the daughter having long dark hair. And it made me think about the full moon versus the new moon.

Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Elizabeth: Whole business in the book [00:21:00] about like sort of similar to you could think of the moon feeding other parts of the moon , or the moon feeding itself throughout its phase in the moon cycle and sort of like older moon to a new moon, you know? You said grandmother, did you mean the witch? The, is that who you meant? Oh yeah.

Andrea: She calls her Grandma.

Elizabeth: That but then at the end of the book, okay, spoiler, that she then is like feeding Luna, her magic, and it's ending her life at the end. She's lived for, it doesn't never say how long she's lived for a very, very long time. But then she's reaching the end of her lifetime and her energy is fed to Luna, as Luna is approaching her maturity. And the same thing happened to, the grandmother, Xan like,

Andrea: Zosimos. Z guy.

Elizabeth: yeah,

Andrea: Z guy

Elizabeth: Yeah, whatever was that like that she says, who knows how long ago that was. But he was a very old magic person and he taught her, kind of everything he knew about magic. And then at the end of his life, he then passed on his energy to [00:22:00] her and then he died, or whatever happens to the magic people in this world. So that was what happened for her is she became, you know, a mature, magic person. And so now the same thing is happening for Luna and Yeah. With that you could sort of compare that to the moon, I guess, the ebbing in the flowing, the waxing and the waning .

Elizabeth: and

Andrea: So it's, it's this idea of duality and maybe changing perspective . There's just so many things that you could apply to that.

Andrea: The idea of two things being true at the same time it came up a couple times in the book.

Elizabeth: The witch is good and she's bad.

Andrea: And the girl, she said when she turned 11, she liked that number 'cause it was both symmetrical, being two ones, but then also an odd number, so not divisible. So it's even and odd at the same time.

Elizabeth: Or like the dragon is a small dragon and he's a big dragon. Or extremely, what would say it's like extremely large dragon or something.

Andrea: Simply Enormous, was it? Simply Enormous Dragon.

Elizabeth: Yeah. As we were sort of preparing to, record this podcast, we were kind of going through books that we've read. A title that came up that we both have read is The House [00:23:00] of the Cerulean Sea by TJ Kune. The thing that made me immediately go back to  The House of the Cerulean Sea though, is 'cause then the my sister's a really big reader and she was the one actually gave me the book. And, it's got kind of like a whimsical, kind of silly cover. And I was like, okay. Sure, I'll read this. Okay. But then it actually is so charming and cute. But one thing that we continue to reference about that book is at some point it has "Extremely Upper Management" Capital E, U, capital M, Extremely Upper Management.

Elizabeth: And it's like so perfect for like stupid bureaucracy, you know? And both of us are healthcare workers and you know, working in the bureaucracy of healthcare. Yeah. It's just very funny actually. Yeah. Simply, simply ginormous dragon or something. Extremely Upper Management. So he's like, he's like a giant dragon and a little dragon.

Andrea: I think there's a lot that can be discussed with this book .

Andrea: Would you say it met your expectations? Did you have expectations going into this?

Elizabeth: I didn't really, I try to not, I mean, well, we all judge books by their covers. I mean, come on, who doesn't? I mean, here, I immediately said  The House of the Cerulean Sea it's got kind of [00:24:00] a silly cover and I sort of doubting this book that my sister was giving to me. So I, I didn't necessarily come in with expectations.

Elizabeth:I do remember as a kid I tried to read all of the Newbery Medal winners. I remember in my hometown library, there was like a poster in the back in the kid section that then had the list of all of the Newbery Medal winners and then their cover. And then of course as time went on and there were new winners, they would just cut out a tiny little picture and tape it onto the poster at the end. So that was always a fun way as a kid to kind of help guide my reading as I was really getting into reading at sort of the age you were mentioning, like about middle school age is when oftentimes kids get really into it. And so yeah, I didn't necessarily have a ton of expectations.

Elizabeth: As I was reading it. I did enjoy it. It was a really quick read as kind of kids' books or younger fiction can be. So then I maybe kind of inhaled it, which then sometimes means that you don't always enjoy some of the details. So, I have realized that I've enjoyed talking about it. And actually sometimes that happens with books, right? Where the talking about it makes you like a little bit more. And [00:25:00] so kind of exploring some of the details of it has made me appreciate it more than when I was reading it.
Andrea: I didn't know what to expect. I like the little dragon reference. In general a book gets a little a bump up, in my opinion, if there's a dragon involved.

Elizabeth: A dragon?

Andrea: Yes,

Elizabeth: Alright, I'm gonna keep that in …

Elizabeth: I learned a new detail

Andrea: But

Elizabeth: That's funny.

Andrea: I've only read one other book by this author. Speaking of dragons, the other book was called When Women Were Dragons. So I was excited to read that, but then it was just a little too confusing for me.

Andrea: So I liked this more than I liked the other book by the same author. I was pleasantly surprised

Elizabeth: By the other..

Andrea: by this book. I.

Elizabeth: that you've read, that she wrote was more confusing?

Andrea: Yes, and it's intended for adults, so maybe they're just supposed to get more, but one of the major themes in her other book is feminism. And so there are women that turn into dragons [00:26:00] and it's unclear exactly to me why they're turning into dragons. And maybe they're turning into dragons for different reasons, but that was also unclear.

Andrea: I don't need everything spelled out for me, but it's nice when the sort of poetry is somewhat more obvious. And because this is a children's novel, I think it was a little more clear what the intended morals to the story were.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Andrea: Does that make sense?

Elizabeth: And yeah, once again, going back to this sort of poetic prose, I almost feel like that can maybe play better in kids' books sometimes.

Andrea: Well, and I think sometimes, at least in this book, it was easier to just explain some of those life lessons by making it vague and then it can apply to a lot of different situations, right? It's more, more of a universal approach.

Elizabeth: Yeah. And maybe it's also as we were saying earlier, like kind of bringing your own [00:27:00] interpretation to the book. I think , that would appeal more to kids maybe. And maybe it's also easier to, try to sort of talk about kids kind of lessons within a book or values or themes within a book. That maybe it appeals more to children when they can bring their own imagination to it.

Andrea: Right. So for example, one of the things that when I read it, it made me question was this just a device to explain violence to kids. When the man's face got cut up by all the paper cranes and birds and animals in the prison cell was it really that just, she just beat him? You know what I mean?

Andrea: Like, was that really, it was just a way of avoiding explaining that someone was like physically beaten and saying it was done through paper animals. And I, so I, it, it kind of made me question, maybe this is a way of softening some of the hard to talk about topics.

Elizabeth: Well I mean, talking about religion and like [00:28:00] bad things that religion does in the name of their religion. So like sacrificing children by leaving them to just die out in a field once a year. To then, you know, once again, try to appease the gods that then make the volcanoes erupt. You know, going back to like sort of as you were trying to kind of compare this book to Jesus and saying that the carpenter could potentially, you're totally right, could, you could definitely interpret it that way. That so often religion is trying to answer the big questions of why do bad things happen? Why are there natural disasters? Why do adults act the way that they do? Or, you know, just in trying to sort of answer these big life questions that then religions come up with different ways to answer those questions. And so that then could also sort of be a way to talk about religion and to talk about the unknown and the uncertainty.

Andrea: Or,

Andrea: Why you should ask questions. Why you should be curious and not just take everything at face value, right? There's so much in the, [00:29:00] that's just, oh, "This is the way things are, and that's the way it's always been". And, and that's not really the way things are, and that's maybe not the way it's always been.

Elizabeth: ' Cause then going back to like the Jewish or within Islam, like explaining who Jesus was versus then the Christian religion that's then founded upon who Jesus was. And yeah.

Elizabeth: So it just kinda depends upon your perspective, right? Is she a good witch or is she a bad witch, which is a bad witch to the townspeople that are sacrificing these babies. 'cause they think that they're like sacrifice to her. But really she's saving these children from these crazy adults that are sacrificing children.

Andrea: You know, it, kind of kept me on the edge of my seat , towards the end when they were all converging and you thought that something bad might happen to Luna because he thought she was the witch, you know? And I don't wanna give too much away. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. So what did you think of the book overall? If you had to give it, a rating, what would, what rating would you give it?

Andrea: I gave it a four star rating. I think it was a well-written children's book and I enjoyed reading it. It [00:30:00] wasn't five stars 'cause it's not something that I would ever probably reread. But I would recommend it to , a middle school age,

Elizabeth: Yeah. Would,

Andrea: reader.

Elizabeth: For something to be five stars is, is it something in your mind that you would reread again? Is that a requirement of a five star

Andrea: Well, I guess it depends on the book. I have definitely given some books in the, ACOTAR series, five stars. And I've given, you know,

Elizabeth: you would not read it and

Andrea: which I'm probably not gonna reread them, but I really liked them and it was just sort of like, it, it sort of touched a specific part of my like.

Andrea: I don't know how to say this, but like, it touched my soul. That sounds so dramatic. That's not what I'm trying to say…

Elizabeth: Would have to like make some sort of judgment in my mind. I don't know that I would say it out loud, but now I am about, if you say the ACOTAR series touches your soul, that maybe, I don't know. I won't finish with that.

Andrea: So no, but it's just, so much of all the things I like and enjoy. And you're rooting for the main character the whole time. I [00:31:00] wasn't necessarily rooting for the main character the entire time in this book. I was kind of along for the ride instead of really invested in the characters.

Andrea: Yeah. So I think it's a certain level of investment that makes me give it five stars or something's really unexpected. There's a really good twist.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Yeah. And also it doesn't have to be five stars to recommend to somebody too, you know? Well, I mean, yeah, you of

Andrea: True.

Elizabeth: So like, but then also, like, of course your recommendation is gonna be based upon who you're recommended it to. So like you saying that you would recommend this to a middle schooler.

Elizabeth: Totally. I have a 13-year-old niece, and I just thinking like, sure, she would probably like this. Maybe she's actually already read it. I don't know. I, I'll have to ask her. And if not, I'll say that she should. And her sisters too. Her younger sisters. Anyway. I'd probably give it, I was originally, as I was approaching our discussion today, I was thinking maybe a three and a half, but now after our discussion and just being able to kind of externally process the story and realizing that , it was pretty action packed. There was a lot that happened and maybe that's just once again going back to the poetic prose that you just sort of don't realize it's happening or it happens really fast. But actually does pack [00:32:00] in a lot. And so yeah, I actually think I agree with you that I'd give it a four star rating that I wouldn't necessarily have before we talked about it.

Andrea: If we hadn't been doing this full moon theme for the podcast, I probably would not have picked this book up, but I'm glad I read it.

Elizabeth: I mean, also, I mean, you know, it's a Newbery Medal winner.

Andrea: That helps.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Like that kind of automatically gives it a significant stamp of approval . Knowing it was a Newbery Medal winner, I didn't necessarily think that as I was reading it, but now talking about it, like actually, yeah, I could actually see that.

Elizabeth: Yeah. But yeah I probably would not also have read this unless it was sort of chosen, for our theme. But yeah, once again, I agree with you that I'm glad that we read it.

Elizabeth: Yeah!

Andrea: I'm glad to hear that.

Andrea: Well, our Full Moon journey will continue, and the next book that we have picked is very different from this. Well, it's similar in the sense that it is about the daughter of the Moon Goddess. That's the name of it, The Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan. It was a Goodreads nominee for [00:33:00] Reader's Favorite Fantasy in 2022, and also the nominee for Reader's Favorite Debut Novel. It's part of a series, but I've heard good things about the first book, and this is the first book.

Elizabeth: Do you know of how many there are in the series that have come out so far? Or how long the series is or will be?

Andrea: So it looks like it's part of this Celestial Kingdom series, and there's a book two and two and a half was published last year. And then Immortal is a standalone, which is part of this world. That was published this year. Maybe if we like it, we'll keep reading it.

Elizabeth: Yeah, I, I have to say that I I'm pretty excited about this one. Of the books that we've picked to begin our podcast this is probably the one just, judging a book by its cover, that I am perhaps most excited about actually.

Andrea: Well, and speaking of other books that we're excited about, I think this is a pretty long book. So our next podcast is gonna be book [00:34:00] recommendations or authors that we are excited about that are coming out with new books. 'Cause it's like a 500 page novel and I need a little bit of time to read this.

Elizabeth: Yeah. One thing that I do when I'm about to start a new book or looking at a book is I'll kind of like flip through the pages a bit just to kinda see how many words are on a page, like how much white space is there. And yes, there looks to kind of be a fair amount of white space on these pages. There doesn't, there don't seem to be tons and tons of words on a page. Some books when they're that long, sometimes they can feel like a chore or there's an aspect to it that can feel like a chore. But looking at it, it's like, well I dunno that this book will do that.

Andrea: That's good to hear.

Andrea: Well and also, I mean, another good thing about talking about books we're excited about, is that hopefully we'll be able to release that before Indie Bookstore Day, which is at the end of April It's the last Saturday in April, which this year is the 26th, I believe, April 26th.

Elizabeth: That's exciting. I am going to be in New Orleans for that weekend. I have never been in New Orleans before, and I've actually been fascinated by New Orleans for a long time.

Andrea: Ooh.

Elizabeth: Yeah. My cousin and I are doing sort of [00:35:00] like a girl's weekend and going to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. It's gonna be fun. But that is fantastic. Oh, we'll definitely need to go to some bookstores in New Orleans. But now knowing that, that's when Indie Bookstore Day is, we're gonna end up going to a lot of bookstores. I have to make sure to have enough space in my luggage to bring back.

Andrea: Yeah, we'll have to look up and see if there's like a special New Orleans book crawl . So that should be fun to talk about.

Elizabeth: Well, that, yeah, that'll be fun to talk about.

Elizabeth: So Independent Bookstore Day one more time, Saturday, April 26th.
Elizabeth: And unfortunately, that now concludes this week's episode.

Elizabeth: We have reached the end of another cosmic journey on Galaxies and Goddesses.

Andrea: But don't worry, the adventure never really ends. There are always more stories to explore and let's be honest, more bookish, tangents for us to go on.

Elizabeth: But that is part of the fun. So if you loved today's episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the magic with your fellow goddesses.

Andrea: Be sure to check out our Instagram at Galaxies and Goddesses, where we'll have a book review and a quick recap of our thoughts about The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.

Elizabeth: And if there's any sort of lunar event or stellar series you want us to dive into, send us a message. We might just feature it in a feature episode.

Andrea: In the meantime, keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories.

Elizabeth: And never stop the worlds waiting for you between the pages. Bye!

Andrea: Thanks everyone!

*Transcription note: Book title should be “Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie