The Moon Within

The dazzling story of a girl navigating friendship, family, and growing up, an Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? for the modern day, from debut author Aida Salazar.

****Four starred reviews!**** * A worthy successor to Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret set in present-day Oakland. — Kirkus Reviews, starred review Celi Rivera’s life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend’s exploration of what it means to be genderfluid. But most of all, her mother’s insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It’s an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be? A dazzling story told with the sensitivity, humor, and brilliant verse of debut talent Aida Salazar.

Aida Salazar is an award-winning author and arts activist whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the middle-grade verse novels The Moon Within (International Latino Book Award Winner), Land of the Cranes, and the biography picture book Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Revolutionary Fighter. With Yamile Saied Méndez, she is slated to coedit Calling the Moon, a middle-grade anthology on menstruation by writers of color. She is a founding member of Las Musas, a Latinx kidlit debut author collective. Her short story By the Light of the Moon was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, California.