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FAT MOON DANCE
By Elizabeth Taylor
BeWrite Books, UK
1-904224-28-8
Trade $7.85Bayly James is 11 years old and in the 6th grade. She lives in a town called Winnipeg in Canada. And the one thing she wants most in the world is to go to the Harvest Moon Dance at the community center, but it will be her first dance, and the first dance her mother is not ready to let her go to. Bayly's mom, probably like most mothers, has a hard time letting go (not dangerously) and allowing her daughter to grow up. So starts the plan to try to convince her mother in letting her go to the dance that all her friends are attending.
The dance is on Saturday night and Bayly has a big social studies project due the following Wednesday, so to prove something to her mother and not give her the excuse of working on the project over the week end, Bayly sets out to finish the project in time for the dance, hoping to impress her mother. With the help of her three friends (Libra, the artistic child socially tortured with embarrassment of having two hippie parents; Heather, the oh-so-beautiful girl who says how she feels and often says the wrong thing; and Emma, the token fat girl with all the brains who is the most useful to the project but is also a bit of an embarrassment because of the obvious), Bayly deals with in-group arguments, evil math tests, rivalry with the most beautiful girl in school, try-outs for the school play, and, of course, boys.
The heart of this young adult novel seems to be about acceptance and misconception. Bayly learns to accept her friends and discover who they REALLY are underneath; most of all Emma, who she subconsciously feels threatened by socially, and Kameko, the most beautiful rich girl in the school, Bayly's rival who might steal away the boy she has an interest in at the dance.
The characters are tight and so well defined, but not so much that they come off as stereotypes or clichés. In the case with Emma, at one moment she is all together, leading the social studies project and centering the girls, but then at the next moment, she comes off clingy and worried about how Bayly feels about her.
The one aspect of the book that put me off was the fact that Kameko, an Asian girl, was considered the bad person. Perhaps it was the fact that all the other kids were white and there was no mention of other races at the school. But as the book moved on, it seemed that Taylor used Kameko's nationality as a devise to deepen the girl and sympathize with her at the end of the book.
"Fat Moon Dance" is a light and easy read for kids as well as adults. It is funny, thoughtful, and the characters ring true.
Review by Mike Purfield
Critical Raves for Mike Purfield's "Dirty Boots."
"If you're looking for a good read, something you've never experienced before, then this is the book for you." Paul Kane of Terror Tales.
Rated 3 out of 4 by Unhinged Magazine.
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