The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The Girl Who Drank the Moon (2016) by Kelly Barnhill has been around for a bit, and has won many awards (including the 2017 Newbery), but I just discovered it after reading Barnhill’s brilliant When Women Were Dragons (2022). After listening to The Girl Who Drank the Moon, I immediately purchased my own hardcover copy, along with some of Barnhill’s other middle-grade books. I was enthralled, enchanted, and I can’t wait to share it with everyone!

We initially meet Antain, a boy who is training to become an Elder of his village, The Protectorate, which sits on the edge of a forest where it is told that there is a witch. Every year, the people of the Protectorate sacrifice the youngest baby to the witch so that she does not wreak havoc among them. Antain witnesses a mother refuse to give up her baby and go mad in the process, and he never quite understands why the sacrifice is required.

Meanwhile, Xan, the witch who lives in the forest with a swamp monster and a perfectly tiny dragon with an enormous heart, wonders why every year she has to rescue a baby from the woods outside the Protectorate. Taking great care, she feeds each one starlight, and finds families for each baby in the towns on the other side of the forest. Until one year, she accidentally feeds the baby moonlight in addition to starlight, and this baby becomes “enmagicked.” Xan decides to make the baby part of her family because who can best raise an enmagicked baby but a witch? Xan names her Luna, and she wins the hearts of everyone, but toddlers who can do magic can also be dangerous.

Barnhill’s writing is so beautiful, and the truth is revealed slowly and skillfully. I didn’t want it to end and will treasure this story for a long time. Without spoiling anything, all of the threads are neatly tied up in a bow and good triumphs, as it should. But the costs of traumatic experiences are clear and Barnhill shows that healing can happen. The best lessons are about finding who who is controlling the narrative, speaking truth to power, and love being expansive.

It was also completely weight-neutral. A perfect middle-grade fantasy, in my opinion.