The Moon Within Read online

  All of the gracias in the world to my source, mi mami bella, Maria Isabel Salazar Viramontes, for teaching me about the power in herbal medicine, for your will to live a full and beautiful life in the face of tragedy and for loving me, mas; to my father, Fidel Rafael Salazar, who showed me what it is to hold immigrant dreams close and never let go; to my siblings, Isabel, Rafael, Edith, Veronica, Angelica, Belinda, and siblings-in-law Nelida, Carlos, and Tom—each of you are so singularly vital to the beating of my heart—thank you hermanas y hermanos for everything; to my nieces and nephews Sammy, Jonathan, Janelle, Mikey, Kristen, CJ, and Miley for allowing me to be witness to the wonder of your lives and for fortifying my resolve to write stories for youth. To my abuel@s, ti@s, and prim@s, some whom have recently gone into the realm of the ancestors, I hold you close no matter how far I go. To the beautiful and wild Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean family I married into, thank you for sharing your sabor y amor with me.

  Most importantly, to my angel, Amaly, and my living children João and especially Avelina—the brilliant inspiration for this story—thank you, amores, for trusting me with the sanctity of mothering you, and for your art-filled lives and blossoming that have taught me to reach deep into the part of me that holds love, pain, and the hopes for a better world, and then to sing it all from my pen. Finally, I offer loving gratitude to my encanto, John, for rescuing me, sustaining me, delighting me, and loving me like no one ever. It is such a blessing to dance in this world with you.

  AIDA SALAZAR is a writer, arts advocate, and homeschooling mother whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. In addition to her debut, The Moon Within, she is the author of the forthcoming books The Land of the Cranes and her debut picture book, Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Revolutionary Fighter, all published by Arthur A. Levine Books. Her story “By the Light of the Moon” was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, CA.

  Text copyright © 2019 by Aida Salazar

  Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Joe Cepeda

  All rights reserved. Published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and the LANTERN LOGO are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  LCCN: 2018017565

  First edition, March 2019

  Jacket art © 2019 by Joe Cepeda

  Jacket design by Maeve Norton

  “A Flower Song for Maidens Coming of Age” printed with permission from David Bowles

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-28339-6

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.