Editorial Content for Moone Boy: The Blunder Years

It’s summer break and Martin Moone is bored. His older sisters --- all three of them --- are driving him crazy. He has a good friend, Padraic, but he lives some distance away and is kept very busy on his family’s farm. Martin wants a friend who can spend time with him every day.

He decides he needs an imaginary friend but he can’t imagine how to get one. When he mentions this to Padraic, Martin is surprised to learn that Padraic has an imaginary friend (known as an IF). Padraic tells Martin how to get one of his own.

According to Padraic, the process is a bit complicated, but Martin follows the directions. He chooses Loopy Lou for his IF. Loopy Lou is lots of fun but he’s a bit too much for Martin to handle. Martin wants another IF, but getting rid of one and getting another is not as easy as you might think.

A well-written story that is well worth reading.

I liked MOONE BOY for a number of reasons. The introduction hooked me right from the start, and there is an abundance of alliteration throughout the text. There are lots of great illustrations scattered throughout the book, and I liked the unique layout --- the pages are lined like they would be in a notebook.

I also really enjoyed the fact that as you read through the book, you find asterisks beside many words. These words are defined on the bottom of the pages in little boxes called Moonie’s Dictionary. Just to give you a feel for how they are written, here’s Martin Moone’s definition of the word strop: “a tantrum for those above the age of a toddler. The quieter form is a ‘huff,’ which becomes a ‘strop’ once a coat is flung on the floor.” All the definitions contain part fact and part humor.

However, there are also a few things that I didn’t like about MOONE BOY. I thought there was just a wee bit too much mention of female body parts, especially for boys in this age group. Also, the author changed the point of view of the narrative about halfway through the book with no warning. From that point on, the point of view went back and forth, sometimes making it difficult to determine who was telling the story.  All in all, though, it is a well-written story that is well worth reading.