In the captivating middle-grade novel Moonwalking, two boys in 1980s Brooklyn form an unlikely friendship through music and art. Co-authors Zetta Elliott (Dragons in a Bag) and Lyn Miller-Lachmann (Rogue) use poetry to tell the delicate and painful story of the boys' short-lived friendship.
Joseph John "JJ" Pankowski is the new kid at school, and one of the only white and Polish faces in a sea of brown. Afro-Latinx Pierre "Pie" Velez is a math and history genius as well as a graffiti artist. When Pie sees JJ (who was told by his old school that he had "pervasive developmental disorder") being mistreated in the cafeteria, he invites him to have lunch in the art room. The middle schoolers, both with difficult home lives, connect through their love of the arts--JJ loves punk rock and Pie is fascinated with Jean-Michel Basquiat's work. The pair quickly become friends, but their relationship is threatened when Pie is caught tagging a building and almost arrested.
Elliott and Miller-Lachmann use dual points of view to bring this heartwarming but also painful novel-in-verse to life. The authors' deliberate styles highlight the difference between the boys--Miller-Lachmann writes JJ through short, multilayered poems with text that is sometimes scattered across the page; Elliott's Pie text is fluid, musical and intentional. They delicately cover topics that include interracial friendships, abuse, mental health, immigration, disabilities, class and the sense of belonging in language that is easily accessible to middle-grade readers. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer