Maggot Moon Author: Sally Gardner | Language: English | ISBN:
B00B90Y272 | Format: PDF
Maggot Moon Description
A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book! In Sally Gardner’s stunning novel, set in a ruthless regime, an unlikely teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing. 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.
- File Size: 466 KB
- Print Length: 288 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0763665533
- Publisher: Candlewick (February 12, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00B90Y272
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,949 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > Military & Wars
- #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > Military & Wars
3.5 Stars
Sometimes a story has more layers than an onion, with more and more meaning to peel away and peel away. Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner is just such a story. But you might not like what you find under each layer.
Standish Treadwell isn't bright. At least, it is safer for Standish if you think that. In the alternative Britain he lives in, there isn't much of anything that could be considered "bright". No color, no fun, no happiness. But for a boy who can't read and write, this cruel world is particularly cruel. That is, until Hector comes along. As the only boy Standish has every called a friend, Hector is the most important person in his life besides Standish's grandfather.
The world doesn't take kindly to friends. With the Greenflies buzzing around and teachers who are willing to beat a little boy to death for laughing, the world is a cold hard place. But when Hector disappears, Standish refuses to stand by and let it happen. He watched his own parents disappear after his mother was taken and returned disfigured, and he isn't going to let the same thing happen to Hector. Standish is the only one who can help. He is the only one who can help because he is the one who is underestimated the most.
Have you read Animal Farm? If you have, you know there are two (or more) layers to that story. You have the weird story about the talking animals taking over the farm, and then you have the deeper allegory into the world's political figures. Maggot Moon is the same kind of story. Honestly? This is NOT a book for young kids or even most young adults. It is deep, complex, violent, bizarre, confusing, and I am not even sure I really liked it, but it had my mind spinning all day.
In the Motherland being different is frowned upon. If your different, there is probably a reason and that reason is your no good. Standish is different and until he got a friend he was nearly alone in the world. Standish had his grandfather (his parents were taken) and now he had Hector. They play with a football Standish found and it ends up on the other side of a big government wall. That's when the trouble really starts. What if Standish hadn't found that football? What if it hadn't gone over the wall? What if that fool Hector didn't volunteer to go get it? Maybe then Hector wouldn't be gone too. Maybe Standish wouldn't have to save him and the rest of the Motherland people.
I don't know what I was expecting with this novel, but it wasn't this. This was very interesting. It was a completely unique tale about a young boy in a cruel world. This story will shock you and warm your heart.
Standish puts himself down a lot. He has dyslexia, and everyone tells him that means he's not very bright. I don't think this is the case at all. Standish is kind and thoughtful. Just because his reading and writing isn't the best, doesn't mean he can't form intelligent thoughts. It's a shame that most of his teachers only perpetuate the idea that he isn't bright instead of trying to help him in any way. This country, the Motherland, seems like a terrible place to be. It seems a bit like Nazi Germany and we all know how fun that was.
The violence in this novel is enough to make you sick. There's the school yard bullying which is bad enough, but then there's the teacher bullying (not to mention the government bullying). Standish's current teacher is the worst. He is a despicable person with no sense of decency, with his sick thoughts based only on self-preservation.
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