What the Moon Saw

About What the Moon Saw

An intimate, award winning story of immigrants and their families, the borders they cross, and the ties that bind us all together.

Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna’s name means “clear moon” in Spanish. But lately, her life has felt anything but clear. A letter has arrived from her grandparents in Mexico inviting her to stay with them for the summer. But Clara has never met her father’s parents. All she knows is that he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager.

When she arrives, she’s stunned by how different her grandparents’ life is from her own in the United States. They live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but an indigenous language, Mixteco. Their village of Yucuyoo holds other surprises, too—like the spirit waterfall, which is heard but never seen. And Pedro, a young goatherder who wants to help Clara find the waterfall. But as Clara discovers more about where she comes from, what will it mean for who she is now?

What The Moon Saw is an enchanting story of family, home, and discovering your true self in the most unexpected place.


“Filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. . . . a thrilling adventure . . .”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred

“Readers . . . will find themselves swept up in this powerful, magical story, and they’ll feel, along with Clara, ‘the spiderweb’s threads, connecting me to people miles and years away’.”—Booklist, Starred