GRAFFITI MOON

GRAFFITI MOON by Cath Crowley    (LWH)

I must admit it took me quite a few pages to really get into this book, but I am glad I persevered because I really got hooked and warmed to the characters and ended up really enjoying the story. Lucy and her two girlfriends have finished Year 12 and are out on the town to enjoy themselves. Lucy is fascinated/in love with a Graffiti artist called 'Shadow' and adores his paintings that are scattered around Melbourne. She is artistic herself and feels a bond with Shadow and the depth of meaning behind his graffiti and creates an imagine of what he would be like and what he looks like and all she wants to do is find him.

They meet up with 3 boys from their class at a party who say they know Shadow and his friend Poet.  When one of the boys, Ed, convinces Lucy he knows Shadow well and invites her to follow him on a tour of some of Shadow and Poets best graffiti walls she jumps at the chance. Will she ever get to meet shadow? Has sh ealready met Shadow without realising it? And who is this person known as Poet?

Each chapter of this book is written from the perspective of Ed, Lucy or Poet which I enjoyed. It dealt with misconceptions, expectations and reality. It raises the question do many of our youth fall between the cracks in the education system and drop out of school unnecessarily, because their talents aren't recognised, and they don't fit into the 'mould'.

This book won an 'HONOUR' at the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Aust) book of the year awards this year in the 'Older Reader' section.

About the author:   Cath Crowley was born in Melbourne in 1971 but before she started school her family moved to a property in Gippsland. Our house was a long way from the town.She read a lot because there wasn’t much else to do. She loved any books about private detectives or adventure– Trixie Beldon, Nancy Drew, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Cath enjoyed anything by Judy Blume, anything by Jane Austen and couldn’t put down Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. Dr Seuss being a favourite.

She didn’t write books straight after high school but went to Uni and studied radio production and literature, then became a teacher and taught English. She traveled overseas and while in Europe Cath wrote letters to her brother, who later turned them into a musical called 'The Journey Girl'. After that she studied professional writing at TAFE. She wrote articles for papers and magazines, then finally wrote 'The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain' and things took off from there.