Life on the Moon

Gr 4-6–Leo, who is white, and his dad are settlers at Colony X on the moon. As lonely, homesick Leo tries to discover their mission, he quickly learns the first rules of the colony: There is no life on the moon, and don’t ask questions. When Leo’s dad and Sally (his dad’s significant other) go missing soon ­after their arrival, normally rule-following Leo decides to borrow a rover and sneak out to search for them. Along the way, he encounters life on the moon: a race of exactly 354 beings called Valrootens and a large, voracious mouth called a Hortle, which eats one Valrooten each day. Through a friendship with a wise Valrooten, whose paradigm for life is more straightforward, Leo begins to question the rules, as well as his ­assumptions about the earth and earthlings he loves. Slowly, his mission begins to come into focus; but he’ll need to risk everything to accomplish it. Comedy and pathos chase each other in circles as the narrative bounds across the moon, addressing questions about the value of human (and alien) relationships, creativity, community, and problem-solving, as well as the limits of artificial intelligence. Each leg of Leo’s caper upends more of his and readers’ expectations. Black-and-white cartoon illustrations are especially effective when depicting native moon denizens. The shift between black backgrounds and white backgrounds echoes Leo’s shifting understanding of things he thought were uncomplicated.