Moonwalking by Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Zetta Elliott
on April 12, 2022
ISBN: 0374314373
Pages: 224
Genres: Fiction in Verse/Poetry
Format: Fiction
Goodreads

This verse novel tells the story of two classmates who become unlikely friends in alternating poems of various styles written by two authors. It is set in the 1980s against the backdrop of the air traffic controllers strike, Poland’s Solidarity movement, and punk rock. Pie, an African/Puerto Rican-American is an aspiring artist who experiences discrimination and has to take care of his younger sister when his mother is unable. JJ and his family are forced to move into the basement flat of his Polish grandparents after his father loses his job. He too feels out of place as one of the only white students in his school. Raises interesting questions about discrimination and profiling, for example, Pie’s stepfather mistreats Pie because Pie’s father is African and JJ is placed in honors classes seemingly because he is white in a mostly black school.

Reviewed by Karen Sandlin Silverman, Mt. Ararat Middle School, Topsham