A COOL MOONLIGHT

The innovative Johnson has crafted an original story in both content and writing style. As eight-year-old Lila tells about being forced to avoid sunlight because of a chromosomal condition (xeroderma pigmentosum), the narrative is written entirely without capitalization, intimating that capital letters are missing like sunlight in Lila’s life. Home-schooled, she lives for nighttime when she can be outside to play with her friends Elizabeth and Alyssa, dressed in their tutus and fairy wings, or to share mutant comic books with David from next door, or when her sister, Monk, drives her to the coffee shop. Even at night she wears a hat and she always wants raisins in cookies because they’ve been kissed by the sun. As Lila grapples with her cruel birthright and fills a secret sun bag with magic, the reader wonders if her fairy friends are real or imagined. Her dreams of becoming a superhero sun-goddess/moon-girl are uniquely realized at her ninth birthday party. Poignant, evocative, and as lingering as sunburn, Lila’s story is one of courage, hope, and dreams. (Fiction. 8-11)