In a small river village where the water is cursed, a girl’s bravery could mean the difference between life and death in this magical story of “perseverance and hope” ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review) from the author of Parched and Audacity.

Along a lively river, in a village raised on stilts, lives a girl named Luna. All her life she has heard tales of the time before the dam appeared, when sprites danced in the currents and no one got the mysterious wasting illness from a mouthful of river water. These are just stories, though—no sensible person would believe in such things.

Beneath the waves is someone who might disagree. Perdita is a young water sprite, delighting in the wet splash and sparkle, and sad about the day her people will finally finish building their door to another world, in search of a place that humans have not yet discovered.

But when Luna’s little sister falls ill with the river sickness, everyone knows she has only three weeks to live. Luna is determined to find a cure for her beloved sister, no matter what it takes. Even if that means believing in magic… **

From School Library Journal

Gr 5–8—Luna lives in a swamp. It didn't used to be a swamp. Back in Granny Tu's time, it was a lovely flowing river, filled with sprites and fairies and magic where all of the people of the village were happy. Now the fairies are gone and the magic has turned dark and there is a sickness in the water. Or so they say. Luna doesn't believe a word of it. She only believes what she can see and touch and hear. When Luna's beloved younger sister, Willow, falls into the swamp and catches the river sickness, Luna's family is torn asunder. Willow has three weeks until she wastes away and dies, just like their father did years earlier. Luna's brave journey to save her sister takes her to places her mother told her never to go and to the very heart of the dark magic. Told in alternating chapters of the past fairy time and Luna's present, this lyrical tale highlights the power of sisterly love in a truly enchanting way. VERDICT The book is an easy read and will appeal to lower level/higher interest readers but its charming narrative will be sure to captivate everyone.—Terry Ann Lawler, Burton Barr Library, Phoenix, AZ

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STARRED REVIEW: "This lyrical story has a once-upon-a-time quality and, like the best of fairy tales, an evil to be overcome, a magic charm, and a lesson to be gleaned. Crowder's language is sumptuous, written with an elegiac quality that suits the wistful longings of her protagonists. A quiet story of perseverance and hope, exquisitely written with words and images that demand savoring." (Kirkus June 20115)

The interconnected tale of two girls, one human and the other a water sprite, determined to save their beloved sisters. On Perigee, the night of the nearest moon, a sudden log jam creates a dam along the river. Luna's community lives on the edges of the expanding swamp, building houses on ever higher stilts and believing that the evil spirit who caused the dam lurks under the water. All who taste the water sicken, dying in exactly three weeks. When water splashes into Luna's sister's mouth, Willow contracts the wasting sickness, and Luna breaks every one of her mother's rules to save Willow. In alternating chapters, Perdita's story is told: the adventurous sprite missed the window of time when the doors to a new world opened for the sprites to leave the world that humans have polluted. She fumes in misery beneath the dam. Her twin, Pelagia, had fashioned two lockets, one for each of them, to keep them close. The charmed locket, initially lost by Perdita, holds the key to both Perdita's reunion and Luna's saving her sister and her community. This lyrical story has a once-upon-a-time quality and, like the best of fairy tales, an evil to be overcome, a magic charm, and a lesson to be gleaned. Crowder's language is sumptuous, written with an elegiac quality that suits the wistful longings of her protagonists. A quiet story of perseverance and hope, exquisitely written with words and images that demand savoring. (Kirkus, *STARRED REVIEW June 15, 2015)

"Crowder blends gorgeously poetic language with precisely observed detail in this delicate fantasy of sisterly love tested by separation and illness." (Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW June 22, 2015)

“Told in alternating chapters of the past fairy time and Luna’s present, this meandering tale highlights the power of sisterly love in a truly enchanting way.” (School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW July 2015)

Luna lives in a swamp. It didn’t used to be a swamp. Back in Granny Tu’s time, it was a lovely flowing river, filled with sprites and fairies and magic where all of the people of the village were happy. Now the fairies are gone and the magic has turned dark and there is a sickness in the water. Or so they say. Luna doesn’t believe a word of it. She only believes what she can see and touch and hear. When Luna’s beloved younger sister, Willow, falls into the swamp and catches the river sickness, Luna’s family is torn asunder. Willow has three weeks until she wastes away and dies, just like their father did years earlier. Luna’s brave journey to save her sister takes her to places her mother told her never to go and to the very heart of the dark magic. Told in alternating chapters of the past fairy time and Luna’s present, this meandering tale highlights the power of sisterly love in a truly enchanting way. VERDICT The book is an easy read and will appeal to lower level/higher interest readers but its charming narrative will be sure to captivate everyone. (School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW July 2015)

Crowder (Audacity) blends gorgeously poetic language with precisely observed detail in this delicate fantasy of sisterly love tested by separation and illness. Luna and her younger sister, Willow, live in a swamp caused by the mysterious damming, nearly a generation ago, of the river that used to flow through their village. The swamp water is supposedly cursed, and even one sip causes a wasting sick- ness that inevitably kills in three weeks. After Willow becomes ill, Luna’s desperation causes her to seek high and low for a solution. Meanwhile, the water sprite sisters Perdita and Pelagia prepare to leave the entire world they live in, because sprites can no longer share a world with humans. The fates of the two sets of sisters are more closely entwined than any of them would expect. Crowder’s vividly observed setting, centered on a rooted and loving village community and that community’s interdependence with the land and water, helps this simple-seeming story gain remarkable complexity and emotional resonance. (Publishers Weekly, *STARRED REVIEW June 22, 2015)

Sisterlybonds are often far-reaching, but in Melanie Crowder’s A Nearer Moon, that siblingunion transcends worlds.

Thishauntingly beautiful fantasy unfolds through two storylines. The first takesplace on a swampy Earth-like planet where stilt houses are connected byswinging bridges. Danger lurks just below the still surface of the marsh, andanyone who swallows the water is cursed, doomed to die in 21 days. Luna and heryounger sister, Willow, are boating in the eerie fen, having a great and joyoustime and refusing to let the ominous atmosphere spoil their fun. But when aswamp monster tips the boat, water splashes into Willow’s open mouth, and thusbegins Luna’s quest to save her sister.

Theother storyline follows twin water sprites, sisters who can sense each otherthrough the thumping of their hearts, whether near or far. In the old days,sprites populated the world and shared their magic with people. But humans’mining has created a hostile environment for the sprites, and they must leaveEarth through a magic door to a new world. However, one of the twins fails tomake it through the door and is left behind.

The realmagic of this tale lies in how the storylines intertwine, through theunbreakable ties between the sets of sisters. (BookPage, September 8, 2015)

In this charming fantasy, sisterly bonds bring a water sprite named Perdita and a human girl named Luna together. Perdita’s sister disappeared long ago, after the magical creatures decide to pass through a temporary door to a world more sparsely inhabited. Adventurous Perdita is far away when the door briefly opens, and she loses the pewter locket her sister made to tie the two together. Meanwhile, in Luna’s world, a disastrous flood has created the swamp where her family lives. A creature that lives below its surface is rumored to have created a sickness which proves fatal to those who swallow the water. When Luna’s sister is stricken with the disease, the young girl determines to save her by any means, which includes traveling to forbidden places. Luna’s search eventually takes her underwater, where her story and Perdita’s come together. In language that is rich and atmospheric, Crowder has crafted a book about the deep ties of sisterhood that will entrance readers with a love of magic. (Booklist Online October 5, 2015)

This is an enchanting story of two sets of sisters; two sprites, the others human sisters who live on a cursed swamp. The sprites need to leave and find a new place to live without humans. When the door to the next world opens, one of the sisters, Perdita, gets left behind and falls into a deep sadness. Willow falls into the swamp water and gets "the sickness," and Luna tries to cure her. Luna decides to sacrifice herself to save Willow, and in the end both sets of sisters are reunited. Chapters alternate between the main characters as each story unfolds. The reader learns how sprites and humans are connected, and what will save them both.

Recommended (School Library Connection March 2016)