Like most children, I’ve experienced being teased for appearing different in some way. I learned to defend the strange outfits my mother made for me and the bizarre hairdo of eight pigtails my older sister dared me to wear to school. As a teen, I wore a patchwork jacket made of quilt scraps to my new school and came home in tears. I’ve always felt that if we really knew one another on a deeper level and shared each other’s stories we would realize that we’re all made up of the same stuff inside and would not feel prejudice or the need to scorn outward aspects that don’t matter.
I absolutely love this book and have both listened to it and read it more than once. There are so many layers and insights especially for those who feel out of place and are bullied for being different. It is about a girl who is half-human and has Moorfolk (faerie) banished from the fae for her inabilities and exchanged for a human baby. As she grows, her odd abilities are noticed and feared. Despite the taunting and blood-thirsty actions of the village folk, she gives of herself and ultimately takes the risk to retrieve her adopted parents’ human baby. She has the inner strength to venture out and be her unique self.
The daughter of a fairy folk mother and human father, Moql is raised by the fairies, until she is considered too great a risk and is left with a strange human family. Reprint. Newbery Honor Book. Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book.
