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Maisie is excited to get her first phone, but when she starts getting weird messages and hears about Moonleapers, she starts to wonder what is going on….
Moonleapers by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Quill Tree Books, 2025, 320 pages.
- Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12
- Recommended for: ages 8-12
Maisie and her family are headed to take care of Great-Aunt Hazel. BORING. Not the summer she was expecting. After all, they don’t really know Aunt Hazel, do they? The only perk is that Maisie finally has her own phone. It happens to be Great-Aunt Hazel’s old phone, which is kinda weird, but hey, it’s a real phone and Maisie can at least text her friends while she’s gone.
Except that Maisie starts to get texts from an unknown number. Cryptic texts. The first: “Hey diddle diddle. Are you ready for your riddle?” And she also received a strange book from Great-Aunt Hazel about “Moonleapers.” What is going on?
When Maisie and her family arrive in Great-Aunt Hazel’s very boring, very bland retirement community (they’re staying at Great-Aunt Hazel’s very boring and bland home in the community while she is in the hospital), the plot thickens.
Soon Maisie is swept up into a strange mystery involving Great-Aunt Hazel, a cat, and a curious community of Moonleapers. She sneaks out and keeps her parents in the dark at first, but eventually they reconcile. And Maisie finds out who the Moonleapers are, what her role in this clandestine group is, and what her mother and grandmother were like in their earlier lives. Moonleapers is a quick read, but a very creative one. Maisie is told that she has it within her to succeed; we might add that none of us “has it in us” on our own, but she does come to a better understanding of trusting her gut and growing in courage.
Considerations:
- Technology: This is, of course, a fantasy and all’s well that ends well. But do take the opportunity to go over safe phone use with your middle schoolers!
Bottom Line: A fun read for kids who enjoy time-travel fantasy and have been well-versed in nursery rhymes.
Related Reading at Redeemed Reader:
- Review: Margaret Peterson Haddix has written scores of books for kids; two we’ve reviewed previously are The School for Whatnots and The Strangers.
- Review: Several recent books for this age group explore technology in interesting ways: The AI Incident, Schoolbot 9000, and The Frindle Files.
- Resource: Got a voracious tween reader? Check out our Series Fiction for Tweens Booklist.
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