At birth, 13-year-old Margaret “Magpie” Gabbard is given two names, a legacy and a prophecy by “the moon herself—hidden within her long black cloak.” Magpie will one day rise above her grandfather’s fighting legacy with the rival Sizemores, put her “cussedness to good use” and save everyone in Squabble Town and on Gabbard Mountain, Ky. How this comes about is Magpie’s story, part tall tale, part coming-of-age narrative told in a quirky first-person, Appalachian-style voice. Magpie’s plight to unearth the moon from where the Goblins have buried her involves all sorts of magical characters, such as a decapitated floating Head, a fast-galloping boar and evil man-sucking night Goblins. Keehn employs symbolism and humor to create excitement, hilarity and a touching ending with the power of love providing a young girl the means to break the curse of prejudice and orchestrate reconciliation between feuding families. This tall-tale novel, mixed with a dash of the reality of a girl “passing through the gate of womanhood,” will provoke some laughs and some pondering. Imaginative storytelling with a regional drawl. (Fiction. 10-13)
