Read my review at www.yasarah.blogspot.com ( )

Woodworth, Christina. Georgie’s Moon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, NY: 2006.
• In this solid, compelling novel for middle school readers, likeable but imperfect Georgie struggles to reconcile her Air Force father’s presence in the Vietnam War while settling into a new home in small-town Indiana. The novel opens in 1970, just before Georgie begins seventh grade at a new school created following a two-town merger. Georgie befriends Lisa while working on a school project at a home for the elderly, but soon discovers that Lisa’s family is ideologically divided by the war. Woodworth has deftly distilled the 1970s war controversy within Georgie’s small community, giving her very flawed protagonist the chance to view many sides of this issue and to decide if Lisa should be blamed for the acts of her family members. Readers will draw much insight from this personal look at society’s ideological split on support for US troops abroad (an especially timely topic since 2000) and empathize deeply with Georgie as she learns to accept both her father’s fate and the decisions made by others.
• Educators can build upon this book’s complex theme to point out that most controversies go beyond a simple black or white solution. This book can fall within a curriculum about the Cold War period, linking the tensions of the time to popular icons mentioned in this novel such as the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Lady Bird Johnson. Discussions about war supporters and peace demonstrators should follow.