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Book Summary and Reviews of Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson

Beneath a Meth Moon

by Jacqueline Woodson

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  • Feb 2012, 192 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she's still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel's new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad, and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her past.

When T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she's able to begin to rewrite her story and start to move on from her addiction.

Incorporating Laurel's bittersweet memories of life before and during the hurricane, this is a stunning novel by one of our finest writers. Jacqueline Woodson's haunting - but ultimately hopeful - story is beautifully told and one readers will not want to miss.

Ages 14+

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. A moving, honest and hopeful story." - Kirkus

"Starred Review. ...Woodson maintains tension throughout, making it abundantly clear how easy it is to succumb to meth and how difficult it is to recover from it." - Publishers Weekly

"This is must read for teens but also for those of us who work with and care about them. Woodson's lyricism and use of interlocking flashbacks in this first person narrative does not sugarcoat the addiction, its effects, or the aftermath." - Reading.org

"Beneath a Meth Moon is a hard book to read, because it is all so real; it's easy to imagine this young girl on the street and addicted. ...Woodson doesn't give anyone any reason to have romantic illusions about what it is like to be an addict... [she] does, however, give the reader hope." - The Examiner

This information about Beneath a Meth Moon was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Natalie

Life-changing
I am a 15 year old sophomore going through a very difficult and trying part of my life. I see the most addicted visions of myself, knowing that I am capable of doing something terrible like meth. This book changed and helped my life in so many ways. Woodson changed my life. I am so thankful to have writers like this that can effect who I am and help me to be a better person. Who I am can be changed at any moment and I have the power to either pull myself back up or keep going down. Laurel pulled her self back up, because she always had the power. And I have it in me too. Thank you Woodson for changing my life.

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Author Information

Jacqueline Woodson Author Biography

Photo: Marty Umans

Jacqueline Woodson received a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children's Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline grew up in ...

... Full Biography
Link to Jacqueline Woodson's Website

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