West of the Moon--Lynn Becker's Book Picks

March's Book Pick is WEST OF THE MOON, by Margi Preus. This beautiful story elegantly blends Norwegian folklore into a historical fiction plot line. It's a lovely edition put out by Abrams/Amulet, with evocative jacket art and carefully chosen typefaces and interior art.

When Astri's aunt sells her to an odious goatman for two silver pieces and a package of meat, Astri bides her time until she can escape. Spring comes and the goatman means to marry her, but Astri runs away, taking with her a strange girl who spins wool into fine yarn, and all the "treasures" she can find in the goatman's house. She grabs the sister she was forced to leave behind at her aunt's, and the three girls head for the harbor and a ship that's waiting to take them to their father in America. Astri spins stories as they go, until their journey resembles a valiant quest to find a white bear (really a prince) in a legendary castle, aided by spells, curses, and a magical hairbrush.

WEST OF THE MOON was originally inspired by a few lines from the diary of the author's great-great-grandmother Linka, about a "pretty farmer girl" that Linka Preus and her new husband, Herman, engaged while on a boat sailing from Norway to America. As the author describes in her extensive back matter, the story itself is fictional, but it's deeply rooted in historical reality.

Margi Preus previously gave us the Newbery honor book Heart of a Samarai, and the artist for WEST OF THE MOON is Lilli Carre, who did Tippy and the Night Parade, a graphic novel for younger readers published by TOON Books.

--Lynn