Red Moon Rising - Hardcover

Holt, K. A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1481436260 ISBN 13: 9781481436267

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2016

Synopsis

Space-farmer Rae Darling is kidnapped and trained to become a warrior against her own people in this adventurous middle grade space western.

Rae Darling and her family are colonists on a moon so obscure it doesn’t merit a name. Life is hard, water is scarce, and the farm work she does is grueling. But Rae and her sister Temple are faced with an added complication—being girls is a serious liability in their strict society. Even worse, the Cheese—the colonists’ name for the native people on the moon—sometimes kidnap girls from the human colony. And when Rae’s impetuous actions disrupt the fragile peace, the Cheese come for her and Temple.

Though Rae and Temple are captives in the Cheese society, they are shocked to discover a community full of kindness and acceptance. Where the human colonists subjugated women, the Cheese train the girls to become fierce warriors. Over time, Temple forgets her past and becomes one of the Cheese, but Rae continues to wonder where her loyalties truly lie. When her training is up, will she really be able to raid her former colony? Can she kidnap other girls, even if she might be recruiting them to a better life?

When a Cheese raid goes wrong and the humans retaliate, Rae’s loyalty is put to the ultimate test. Can Rae find a way to restore peace—and preserve both sides of herself?

About this title

About the Author

Kari Anne Holt is the author of Gnome-a-geddon, which received a starred review from Booklist, and Red Moon Rising, which Booklist said “will lasso readers and have them hoping for a sequel.” She has also written several middle grade novels in verse including Rhyme Schemer and Brains for Lunch, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was highlighted on the Texas Library Association’s Annotated Lone Star Reading List, and Mike Stellar: Nerves of Steel, a nominee for the Connecticut Library Association Nutmeg Book Award and the Maud Hart Lovelace Award. Kari has recently contributed to the anthology, Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters To Their Teen Selves. Learn more about her at KAHolt.com.

Reviews

Gr 4–6—As a young colonist on a nameless moon, Rae has been taught to fear and despise the Kihuut natives, who are called Cheese due to mishandling of their original name. Although efforts between her father and A'alanatka, a leader in the Kihuut community, have been ongoing, Rae and her sister are captured during an attack. Despite the trauma of being kidnapped, Rae and Temple adapt quickly to Kihuut culture and appreciate the greater freedom enjoyed by Kihuut women, although Rae often thinks of her family left behind. During her captivity, Rae learns that she was taught an incorrect version of an infamous massacre that took place between the Kihuut and the human colonists, including that the Kihuut inflicted germ warfare on the community. When the humans invade the Kihuut in revenge for the kidnappings, many Kihuut are killed or sentenced to hanging. Rae must decide whether to join her aunt as a physician's apprentice and endure the patriarchy of her settlement, or return to the Kihuuts. The action begins immediately and remains fast-paced, at the expense of character development. Rae is an appealing and spirited protagonist who clearly struggles with her dilemma. While the theme of forced colonialism provides opportunity for discussion and is obviously based on the tragic history of white homesteaders and Native Americans, some readers may look askance at the mimicry of Native American names and mythology. VERDICT A strictly additional purchase if demand for dystopian novels is insatiable.—Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA

Edition details

• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1481436260
• ISBN 13: 9781481436267
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336