The Secrets of Magnolia Moon
CBCA award-winning picture book author Edwina Wyatt makes her fiction debut with a whimsical tale of a curious little girl who shares more than just her surname with the moon: They're both excellent secret keepers.
Magnolia Moon is nine years old, likes Greek mythology, her best friend Imogen May (who understands the importance of questions like, "If you could be one fruit, any fruit, what would you be?"), wishing trees, and speaking crows. She knows instinctively that buffadillos are armadillos crossed with buffalos and believes there are walramingos living in her garden. She's also the kind of person who can be entrusted with a great many secrets.
Each chapter in this novel, which captures Magnolia's year of being nine and ends on Chapter Almost 10, reveals a secret that Magnolia is keeping. But the novel also chronicles a year of change for Magnolia. From her best friend moving to the birth of her little brother Finnegan, Magnolia navigates every challenge and secret that comes her way with the kind of authenticity and innocence that comes from being nine years wise.
Creators
A trained lawyer and high school teacher, Edwina Wyatt now writes from her home on the south coast of New South Wales, where she lives with her husband and two children. She is the author of multiple CBCA award-winning picture books. This is her debut novel.
Katherine Quinn is a New Zealand illustrator and surface pattern textile designer based in Hawkes Bay. She works in both traditional and digital illustration, and her work often focuses on long-limbed, big-eyed girls with a touch of innocence and a sense of adventure. This is her debut children's book.
Reviews
Edwina Wyatt’s prose is lyrical and heartfelt, with a glorious use of imagery. And Katherine Quinn has captured the fanciful nature of Magnolia Moon with warmth and joy. This is not a fast-paced read, brimming with dramatic tension. Calling to mind the writing of Astrid Lindgren and Kate DiCamillo, The Secrets of Magnolia Moon is a whimsical and gentle portrayal of friendship and problem solving, with each page to be savoured. And I think young readers could do with more of that.
Kids Book Review
The Secrets of Magnolia Moon is written in a distinctive style with metaphors that are charmingly quirky and conjure gorgeous images of friendship and loving families. It is such a happy story; it reads beautifully and has sweet, intermittent illustrations that make it the perfect present for kids aged 7+.
Readings
Wyatt’s writing is sophisticated and elegant with a nice splash of quirkiness and gentle humour which made ChickPea chuckle every few pages…[Quinn’s] whimsical illustrations are the perfect fit for Wyatt’s gentle words and the carefully considered book design allows space for both the illustrations and the text to take turns on centre stage but also support and extend one another…Pick up your pencils and brushes Edwina Wyatt and Katherine Quinn, we need another volume of Magnolia Moon stories.
Children's Books Daily
The Secrets of Magnolia Moon is aimed at the readership of the Ruby Red Shoes or Clementine Rose series—eight to 10-year-olds who like whimsical, cutesy books about friendship and emotional problem solving. It could also make a good read-aloud book for a slightly younger reader.
Books & Publishing
This whimsical tale gives the reader a glimpse into the world of a nine-year-old Magnolia Moon…Written in an engaging, lyrical and affectionate tone, and complemented by Katherine Quinn’s delightfully evocative illustrations, this is an unusually immersive work. It’s layered in the sense that not all plot lines are completed, some characters come and go with little lasting impact, and things are often left unsaid, but one gets the impression that this is what life is like for someone as gentle and thoughtful as Magnolia Moon and also perhaps anyone who, by the end of the book is almost ten.
Magpies
