The Night of the Fifth Moon by Anna Ciddor
I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started this book. The cover and blurb give very few clues about what is inside. The artwork says ‘children or YA’ and the blurb says ‘Celtic’ with the implication of adventure and magic. However, the book is anything but. If anything I would call it ‘coming of age’ but the main character seems to be aged about 10.
Quickly, 6 children have been apprenticed to a druid. However, only one can be trained. Over a period of 5 new moons one child will be sent home after the welcoming ceremony. The book then becomes a series of stories a>involving each child and exposing their true character. Our ‘hero’ is as fallible as any of the children. Eventually he discovers the druid is selling his support and the young boy stands against the druid, apparently sealing his fate.
As you can guess, this is very unusual. Almost every historical story for children, and I think this one is for the upper primary more than lower secondary, involves lots and lots of adventure. This is much more introspective. The reader is required to understand motives, reject selfish behavior and generally make very mature judgements. It can be quite a ‘morality’ tale without being preachy or judgemental.
I will be very interested in finding this book’s audience and it will take some work. Certainly I don’t see it outselling Harry Potter.
