What if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn't want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell - who has different-colored eyes, who can't read, can't write, Standish Treadwell isn't bright - sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it's big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.
The political circumstances that gave rise to the classic dystopian novels of the twentieth century are in no way gone from the world. Today's young people have to make sense of grim facts about torture and totalitarianism in the news, so it makes sense to give them books in which to work through these
moral dilemmas. Still, Maggot Moon won't be right for every kid, even those who fall into the suggested range of age 12 and up. The kids who do read this will benefit from some serious follow-up conversations with their parents and teachers. With the right perspective, there is something transcendent, even ebullient, about Standish Treadwell's point of view. (Reviewed by Jennifer G Wilder).
Kirkus Reviews
Despite intentions, this tale never connects past to present, resulting in a book with a message but no resonance.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Although the ending is pure heartbreak, she leaves readers with a hopeful message about the power of one boy to stand up to evil.
Booklist
Starred Review. This is alt-history second; first, it is an eerie, commanding drama.
The Bookseller (U.K.)
This novel will just blow you away...Such a beautiful read...this certainly has the potential to become a modern classic.
The Sunday Times (U.K)
Startlingly original, sophisticated and moving, Maggot Moon is out of this world.
Meg Rosoff
Dazzling, chilling, breathtaking. A perfect book.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Diane S. Maggot Moon I have to admit I have never read anything like this book before. A Nazi regime type society in the fifties, in Great Britain where the country is divided into zones but where an amazing young man, who also happens to be dyslexic and not overly... Read More
A German ophthalmologist named Rudolph Berlin coined the word dyslexia in 1887 to describe patients who, in spite of normal intelligence, had extreme difficulties with reading. Scientific discussion of the phenomenon of what was also called "word blindness" emerged in the late nineteenth century, but the term dyslexia has only become widely accepted in the fields of education and psychology in the last fifty years. It has come to be an umbrella term for a range of problems in the use and decoding of written language, one of the disorders educators have come to call "learning disabilities" along with dysgraphia (writing impairment) and dyscalculia (math impairment).
Dyslexia is known to be a neurological condition – not a disease, but a difference in the way the brain is wired for language. Modern neuroscience has been able to use imaging technology to identify physical differences in the language centers of the brain in children with dyslexia, but the exact physical origins of the disorder are difficult to...
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Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight - she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. And now she is forced to work as the king’s thug. But she never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po...
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Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing(May 16 2013) In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth...
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Kirkus Reviews
Meg Rosoff
of 5
by Diane S.
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