About the Book

Meet the Moran Family

In 1970, 13-year-old Jody Moran wants pierced ears, a kiss from a boy, and more attention from her mother. It’s not fair.

Seems like her mother is more worked up about the Apollo 13 astronauts, who have cancelled their moon landing and may not make it back to earth safely. As it happens, the astronauts are spared a crash landing, but Jody is not, for three days after splashdown, her mother dies in a car accident that almost kills her little brother, too. Now, Jody will never know if her mother really loved her.

Jody’s father has taught them to believe in the “Power of Intention.” Announce what you want to the world to make it happen—that’s how Dad built his successful tiling business. But could the power of Jody’s jealousy and angry intentions have caused Mom’s accident? To relieve her guilt and sadness, she devotes herself to mothering her three younger siblings and helping Dad, which quickly proves too much for her, just as persuading quirky Grandma Cupcakes to live with them proves too much for Grandma. That’s when Jody decides to find someone to marry her father, a new mom who will love her best. 

Jody reads high and low to learn about love, marriage, death, and dying. For her adolescent firsts—kiss, bra, and boyfriend—she has the help of her popular older sister, her supportive, progressive father, and her comical Grandma. But each first, which makes her miss her mother, teaches her that death doesn’t happen just once.

Meet the Moon is a novel about how Jody will find and lose her mother, again and again, until she can keep alive the memories of a mother who loved her.

Illustration of the Moran Family above by Dana Brotman