Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton

Title: Full Cicada Moon

Author: Marilyn Hilton

Pages: 382

Finished: July 26, 2017

First Sentence: I wish we had flown to Vermont / instead of riding / on a bus, train, train, bus / all teh way from Berkeley.

Summary: (from Goodreads) 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. Suddenly, Mimi's appearance is all anyone notices. 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.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the first person nature of the novel on what Mimi felt. 1969 was a turbulent year in our history, and I thought this novel in verse really brought home to the small town what was at stake. It was maybe a little too saccharine, but that's fine for middle grade literature.

Read for my Caudill Challenge