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Overview
From Publishers WeeklyWhen polio stalked Minnesota in 1948, fear was every mother's constant companion, as Tatlock (All the Way Home) shows in this well-written story for the evangelical Christian market. Young Nova Tierney and her older brother, Dewey, live a mostly idyllic life despite sharing living space with a motley assortment of tenants at the boarding house run by their Aunt Dortha and mother, Catherine. Dewey, nicknamed "Galileo" for his love of astronomy, dreams of some day walking on the moon, and he and Nova spend many happy hours looking at the night sky together in their backyard. When Dewey is hospitalized with polio, Nova promises to watch the moon for him (thus the title) until he is well. But will he recover? In her bitterness over a childhood secret, her late husband's infidelity and her son's desperate illness, his mother turns her back on God. "Sometimes, I wonder how we all go on living," she muses. Hope begins to return when she strikes up a friendship with boarder and Auschwitz survivor Josef Karski. Meanwhile, Nova exchanges letters with her brother and dreams of having a father again. She takes comfort in the stars: "as long as the moon was in its place and the stars were burning and the planets were moving through their spheres... everything was all right." This beautiful story laced with hope, redemption and forgiveness should find wide appeal among CBA readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description Award-winning novelist Ann Tatlock once again lovingly crafts a story that will touch readers' hearts while illuminating a powerful spiritual truth.
I'll Watch the Moon is the story of Catherine Tierney, angry at a God whom she no longer believes exists, and her painful journey back to faith. It is also the story of her friendship with Josef Karski, who teaches her how to trust in God as he reveals his own story of surviving the horrors of Auschwitz. And finally, it is the story of Nova Tierney, Catherine's daughter, and the threads that bind their lives together. Ann Tatlock has skillfully and gracefully wove a tale readers won't soon forget.
• WINNER, Midwest Independent Publishers Association, First Place-General Fiction, 2003
• WINNER, Best of Genre - Christian Fiction: Library Journal, 2003
• A"Crossings Book Club Selection", 2003
* A "Recorded Books" Selection, 2003
* Norwegian edition published by Lunde Forlag; Oslo, Norway, 2007
Reviews of this book
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"This is a moving and wonderfully encouraging novel...one of the most realistic and significant ones I've read, and one that leaves a great inspiration and message of trust in God for the outcome of all things...I highly recommend it."
-- Renownmagazine.com
"In post-World War II America, nine-year-old Nova Tierney worries about Russian bombs, but mostly she wants to find a suitable candidate to marry her mother and give her a new "pa." Catherine, a tormented soul, is terrified that the polio epidemic will touch her children. When it does strike Nova's 13-year-old brother, Dewey, Catherine weathers the blow via an unlikely friendship with a concentration camp survivor. Dewey's dream is to be the first man to land on the moon, and Nova promises to "watch the moon" for him until he gets better. In her third novel, Tatlock continues to weave 20th-century history into absorbing, finely crafted literary tales with issues of spirituality springing naturally from the text. For all collections and readers who enjoy realistic and hopeful family dramas."
-- Library Journal
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
When polio stalked Minnesota in 1948, fear was every mother's constant companion, as Tatlock (All the Way Home) shows in this well-written story for the evangelical Christian market. Young Nova Tierney and her older brother, Dewey, live a mostly idyllic life despite sharing living space with a motley assortment of tenants at the boarding house run by their Aunt Dortha and mother, Catherine. Dewey, nicknamed "Galileo" for his love of astronomy, dreams of some day walking on the moon, and he and Nova spend many happy hours looking at the night sky together in their backyard. When Dewey is hospitalized with polio, Nova promises to watch the moon for him (thus the title) until he is well. But will he recover? In her bitterness over a childhood secret, her late husband's infidelity and her son's desperate illness, his mother turns her back on God. "Sometimes, I wonder how we all go on living," she muses. Hope begins to return when she strikes up a friendship with boarder and Auschwitz survivor Josef Karski. Meanwhile, Nova exchanges letters with her brother and dreams of having a father again. She takes comfort in the stars: "as long as the moon was in its place and the stars were burning and the planets were moving through their spheres... everything was all right." This beautiful story laced with hope, redemption and forgiveness should find wide appeal among CBA readers. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.VOYA
In the summer of 1948, nine-year-old Nova spends lazy days with her best friend and brother, Dewey. They live with their mother and aunt along with various boarders. The room occupants are a diverse bunch, but they fill the house with voices and laughter, something sorely lacking in many post-World War II households. What brings this patchwork family together is tragedy. Despite his mother's warnings, Dewey goes swimming in the lake and is stricken by polio. Nova is promptly quarantined, forbidden contact with the outside world for the remainder of the summer, and she can only communicate with her hospitalized brother via letters. Her remaining solace is her blossoming friendship with an elderly Polish immigrant who, it is later revealed, lost his entire family in the war. This extremely well-crafted tale features finely tuned characters who create sympathy without overtly begging for it and who are as interesting as those surrounding anyone's dinner table. Intriguing glimpses into each person's background show that how they came to live together is just as important as how they work with each other in the face of tragedy. There are no urgent lessons to be learned here, nor are there any difficult situations to navigate in the story line. But this fascinating story is a departure from the normal teen angst, and because of it, will interest readers in something different. VOYA CODES: 5Q 3P S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Will appeal with pushing; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult-marketed book recommended for Young Adults). 2003, Bethany House, 399p., Trade pb. Ages 15 to Adult.—Holly King