Bookish Bliss: Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton

Follow Courageous Mimi as She Reaches for the Stars in 'Full Cicada Moon'

Three months into 2018 and I’m still making good on my resolution to read more middle-grade and young adult books featuring women of colour as protagonists. I’ve been taking it a step further to seek out novels where these women of colour are also represented on the book’s cover art.

The bold visuals of Latina, Asian, Black or Pacific Islander young women instantly set these books apart from the generic plain vanilla white girl covers. It’s about time that we can see a young Mexican-American witch, a talented Taiwanese dancer, and a Pakistani teen videographer out on shelves and featured in displays.

Diversity diversity diversity. Friends, it’s more than a buzz word or a movement: it’s our life. Right here right now. More than ever before this diversity in literature is at our fingertips. It’s on bookshelves, in libraries, in magazines and journals. It’s a keystroke away on websites, ebook downloads, and blogs. It’s here. And we’re ready for it.

After reading the spectacular Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming I immediately sought out more YA/MG novels in verse. Here’s my (spoiler free) review of one of those gems: Full Cicada Moon.

Goodreads synopsis:

It's 1969, and the Apollo 11 mission is getting ready to go to the moon. But for half-black, half-Japanese Mimi, moving to a predominantly white Vermont town is enough to make her feel alien. She struggles to fit in with her classmates, even as she fights for her right to stand out by entering science competitions and joining

Shop Class instead of Home Ec. And even though teachers and neighbors balk at her mixed-race family and her refusals to conform, Mimi's dreams of becoming an astronaut never fade- no matter how many times she's told no.

A historical novel in verse in the vein of Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming Marilyn Hilton’s novel Full Cicada Moon features a young and bright black girl settling in to her new home in a mostly-white town.

Mimi, our courageous young heroine in Full Cicada Moon has no intention of settling for what she’s told to do and who to be. Mimi’s fascination with astronomy and her knack for mathematics and science sets her apart from many of her female (and even male) classmates. Her enthusiasm for learning isn’t dampened by the boys and girls in her class deliberately not including her.

Coming into middle school in January when it’s already halfway through term immediately sets Mimi apart from her peers. But it’s her eyes, hair and the colour of the skin that instantly marks her as an oddity from the white and blond majority in her Vermont town. Anyone who’s ever had nonconforming traits or different physical appearances can relate to the feeling of awkwardness and not-belongingness that first sweeps over Mimi.

Unlike Woodson’s semi autobiographical novel, Marilyn Hilton’s middle-grade is fictional. Also unlike Woodson’s novel, Mimi’s half Japanese and half Black racial identity isn’t the core focus of Full Cicada Moon. The focus is also on belongingness and bucking conventions. Gender norms takes center stage, grasping hands with the importance of race here. In 1969 girls are largely defined by their femininity. They’re expected to cook, sew, and do what they’re told and career options are limited .

Mimi’s character is a wonderful role model for young girls and boys. Despite all of the negativity and naysayers, Mimi is not cynical or broken down by what others think and say. She carries her passion for the moon and stars and astronomy with her like a torch, brightening her way. Courageously Mimi goes after what brings her happiness. One of the ways? Building and creating small projects with her next door neighbor Timothy in his grouchy farmer uncle’s barn. Another way? Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.s peaceful protests and calls for kindness and love, she goes after her dream to take shop class in school.

Full Cicada Moon is a very introspective book that takes us into Mimi’s precocious head but in such a way that we never forget that Mimi is after all, a twelve-year-old girl. She has a realness to her that is certain to ring true with many young readers who have ever felt like an outsider or alone in their enthusiasm or passions at any point in their life.

There’s a gentleness to Hilton’s verse, it softens the edge of narrative about heavy topics like race and gender roles. Mimi’s emotional journey is carefully painted out for us with the turn of each page, like a brush dipped in ink and twisting and turning into calligraphy on a scroll. The poems are written with a  kind of tenderness that, despite its simplicity, is not silly or flimsy.

Full Cicada Moon’s emphasis on friendship is worth commending. As the story is drawn to life it embraces the bonds between women. Mimi is incredibly close with her Japanese mother, and she becomes friends with an eccentric girl named Stacey, who also defies norms. The female friendship between Stacey and Mimi carries quite a bit of the story. And while he’s not female, Mimi’s tentative bond and eventual deep friendship  with Timothy, who is also unconventional in his passion for baking and cooking, is another touching friendship and look at gender and nonconforming.

Hilton certainly did her research on Japanese culture and traditions. She thoughtfully writes about Mimi’s biracial-ness and her love for both her Japanese mother and Black father’s histories. One of the ways Hilton marries the two is when she writes about the different foods Mimi cooks with her parents, and later in a very sweet and heartfelt chapter, she teaches the girls in her home ec. kitchen how to make her family’s famous cornbread recipe--passed down from her grandmother and her grandmother’s family who were once enslaved.

To be frank, Full Cicada Moon is not exactly the most gorgeous novel in verse out there. The poetry is not especially descriptive or sensory. The language and voice here is very simplistic and doesn’t get tangled up in wordiness.  It’s a no-frills format of verse that uses a lot of simple symbolism in the narrative, beginning with the significance of the new year. It’s a breezy fast read that, even though it doesn’t require us to think too hard, reaches our hearts and minds.

While this is a book intended for a young audience it doesn’t falls into childish rhyming patterns or speak down to the reader. But undoubtedly it will have the greatest impact on those younger readers. Nine-year-olds, ten-year-olds, and other young readers shouldn’t have difficulty reading Full Cicada Moon independently.  I’m in my twenties though, and I absolutely loved the afternoon and night I spent reading Mimi’s story.

Full Cicada Moon is a heartfelt and culturally conscious novel that reflects back on a time period where being a woman and being non-white wasn’t exactly the easiest. But Hilton’s verse never crosses the line into preachy. Culturally conscious and racially diverse Mimi’s story is one that needs to be in classroom bookshelves, school and public libraries  and book shops. Mimi’s composure and persistence is admirable for both children and adults alike. Yes there are some moments that are dark and heavy but in Full Cicada Moon hope is a light that never goes out.

Recommended.

All photos (excluding the official cover art) labeled for noncommerical use.