BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Book Title: Halo Moon (available here)
Author: Sharon Cohen
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: February 2019
Most Suitable for: Years 5-6
Reviewed By: Jacqueline Harris (@phonicsandbooks), Education Consultant
Halo Moon lives in a village in Yorkshire. She loves the stars and spends hours star gazing. She is joined by her new next-door neighbour Pedro and together they watch the sky and explore the moors.
Thousands of miles away, in Ethiopia, Ageze lives with his family in Addis Ababa. Whilst visiting his Grandmother he stumbles across an impossibly ancient object which appears to be able to predict the future. Somehow Ageze has to warn people across the other side of the world that terrible danger is coming; but who would believe him?
Once again Sharon Cohen (author or The Starman and Me) has created a group of believable child characters, with just enough fantasy to make the reader dare to imagine it is almost possible. For example, The Aksumite Kingdom, mentioned in the story, is a real historical kingdom in what is now Ethiopia. I had never heard of it before, yet there remain some extraordinary artefacts and buildings from that time, over two thousand years ago. By using the real alongside the fantastical, Sharon Cohen convinces that it just might be possible that this is something that could happen. Whilst the children seem to have extraordinary freedom to do what they need and want to do, none of it seems out of place with the story.
This is a book about bravery and friendship as well as being an exciting adventure. There is something about the story that makes it very lovely; no horrible villains or dystopian futures and just enough tension to make it exciting, without being terrifying. Halo Moon is the book equivalent of a delicious bowl of soup; warming, comforting and a little bit of more adventurous flavouring. It is the sort of story you cannot help liking and it definitely made me want to find out more about a lost civilisation in Africa, because who knows what there might be left to find…..
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You can order Halo Moon online or from your local bookshop or library.
Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a review copy of this book and to Jacqueline for reviewing it.
