All Four Quarters of the Moon

Juvenile fiction 

     When Peijing, 11, protagonist of Shirley Marr's All Four Quarters of the Moon, moves with her family from Singapore to Australia it's more of a challenge than she expected.  Her father is usually working.  Her mother rejects the people and ways of her new country, after awhile even refusing to leave their new home.  

     Her grandmother is forgetting more and more.  Usually she sits around and watches television.  But she sometimes gets out and disappears.

     At school Peijing's classmates aren't exactly welcoming.  Only one girl who is rejected by her peers becomes her friend.  

     And then there's Peijing's five-year-old sister, Biju.  Peijing is to be a good role model for her sibling, modeling for her traditional Chinese values.  In Australia Biju adapts easily to a more easy going way of life.  Peijing is caught between the old and the new, wondering if it's too late for her to change.

     But the girls share a special secret.  Peijing is an artist and Biju a story teller.  They've created the Little World, a kingdom of paper creatures about whom they've created elaborate stories.  

     All Four Quarters of the Moon is the perceptive coming of age story of a girl learning to cope with very big challenges.  It can help middle graders gain empathy for the increasing number of peers struggling to fit in in new countries very different from their homelands.

On a purrrsonal note, the girls' Little World reminds me of my own Little Little Land.  When I went back on campus after the first part of the pandemic it was exciting and scary at the same time, especially where I was commuting by bus and working a student job in dining, interacting with up to 800 people a shift.  One day I was given a squishy, a creature smaller than the top part of my thumb.  Now I have more than 20.  I keep them on a shelf near my reading chair in my studio.  To me they symbolize rebirth and renewal.  This weekend I plan to clear them more space.  (Jules)

They are some of my subjects.  I rule the place you know.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to kids making challenging moves between countries and cultures.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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