Book Review: Full Cicada Moon

Book: Full Cicada Moon by Marylin Hilton

Genre: Middle grade (MG), historical fiction, poetry

Awards: Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Children (2015)

My rating: 5/5 stars

One-word description: Inspirational

If somebody said they didn’t understand poetry, I would hand them this book. Beautifully written with unique imagery, Hilton paints a world that not only speaks to the mind but touches the heart.

While I was struggling through two other fairly boring books, wondering if any story could ever get better, it did. I put the other books down and picked up Full Cicada Moon. Wow, am I glad I did! An okay book, I may finish in a week or two. An excellent book takes a day or less. I’m pretty sure I finished this one in a couple of hours.

And man, can Hilton write! Not even one-hundred pages into the book, I had to stop and tell my mom she had to read it.

          “On this clear and moonless night,
          Mama and I wrap up in our winter clothes
          and go outside to watch and listen.
          The trees beyond our backyard form a torn-paper line
          between the snow and this sky
          filled with stars.”

You had me at snow and stars.

This book is about beauty and standing up for your dreams and making friends and culture. Not to spoil too much, I shan't delve too much further into the themes.  

          “I am

          half Mama,
          half Papa,
          and all me.”

Daughter of a Japanese immigrant and an African-American, Mimi doesn’t exactly fit in her new town in Vermont. If you’re looking for a book on diversity and what it means to truly be an American, Full Cicada Moon is it.

I even got goosebumps reading about the part where Mimi and her family were watching the Apollo 11 Mission, particularly when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. I can’t remember the last time a poem gave me goose bumps. Seriously, lyrical novels are now one of my favorite things. I. Need. MORE.

This is what a book is supposed to look like.

Of course, I had to give it 5/5 stars for vivid verse, excellent characters, and powerful themes. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in historical fiction, novels in verse, and excellent stories. Now, where to get a copy…

Let’s chat! Have you read Full Cicada Moon yet? If so, what did you think? What’s on your TBR for this fall? What do you think about novels in verse? Do you have any recommendations?

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Similar posts: The Importance of Poetry and Book Reviews: Goodbye Days and A World Without You

Enjoy lyrical novels? You might enjoy Saving Red by Sonya Jones and Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai.

How about middle grade novels with diverse characters? You might enjoy Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, Young Fu Of The Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis, and York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby.