I was almost the same age as the boy in this story, Keith Arthur Watson, who is living in Australia in 1969. What happened in 1969? The moon landing. I well remember there were all sorts of newspaper booklets to collect and I also vividly remember sitting in a crowded classroom and peering at a small television screen to watch those steps on the moon.
Moonboy is a timeslip story. Charlotte is staying with her grandmother. Her dad tells her to look inside a box in her room. When she opens the box she finds newspaper clippings from 1969 all about the Apollo moon landing and also some other things that belonged to Keith, her grandfather, when he was a boy. A big of marbles, some footy swap cards and an old footy sweater. This sweater is very significant because it is the conduit that takes Charlotte from 2025 back to 1969 and straight into ten-year-old Keith's bedroom and life.
Sadly, in 2025, Keith (Charlotte's grandfather) is suffering from dementia. He seems to be unable to speak or recognise his wife or granddaughter. But then Charlotte takes some of the newspaper clippings to his aged care home and for a moment or two he seems to 'come back to life'.
This book covers time from about 9th July to 25th July 1969 and 2025. Keith and Charlotte will both have a birthday on 23rd July. Gran wants it to be special but she also wants to hold it in the Aged Care Home. At first Charlotte finds the state of many of the elderly people quite confronting and upsetting but over the two weeks of her daily visits she comes to see each person as an individual and so her eventual 'moon landing themed' birthday party in the lounge room of Diamond House is, to her surprise, a very happy event.
Here is a video of the television broadcast watched by Keith in 1969 and again by Charlotte in the aged care home with her grandfather in 2025.
My only tiny quibble with this story comes from the way Charlotte knows nothing about the moon landing - that's okay - but I kept wondering why she didn't try to research these events either in her school library or on Google. She is filled with worries about every tiny aspect of this momentous event - will they reach the moon; will the astronauts actually walk there; will they get home safely; and worst of all what if Keith's sister Gwen wrecks everything because she has gone to help her aunt at uncle at Honeysuckle Creek. This true aspect of the Australian connection to the moon landing is explained at the back of the book. It's quite a fascinating side story. I was also a little concerned with the way Charlotte was able to change history. She stops Keith setting off some dangerous fireworks and so his fingers are not damaged and yet the grandfather she has always known did have missing fingers and now his hands are fine.
I did enjoy Keith's colloquial sayings: crikey; how the blazes; are you a few crumbs short of a sandwich; strike a light; ridgy didge; holy moly; fair dinkum; and stone the crows.
When Charlotte travels back to Keith's Grade six classroom she writes a terrific poem about the moon landing. Sadly the teacher rejects it because it doesn't rhyme - even in 1969 I hope this would not be the reaction of a teacher. I really like her poem:
Here is a video review from Kid Lit Joy. Anna Ciddor has some background photos that link with this story on her webpage. You could make use of these in a book talk with your library group. Read the blurb and review page from Lamont Books.
Thank you to Allen and Unwin for sending me a review copy. Moonboy was released yesterday.
Companion book:
Here are some other books by Anna Ciddor. I especially loved one of her very early book - Runestone.
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