Reviewer: Sharon Brunner
Suzanne Jacobs Lipshaw’s Decoding the Moon reveals a view of a heart-wrenching loss, coding, new friendships, and determination. Coding for children involves colorful picture-based blocks, physical tokens, or directional symbols to enable them to solve problems. Lipshaw provides a description and explanation of coding in an appendix. The story began at West Bloomfield, a town in lower Michigan, and proceeded to Marquette, a community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.). Lipshaw does not live in the U.P. She lives in Waterford, Michigan, a community located north of Detroit. The main characters are Levi and his brother, Zack, their father, Matt (Levi’s friend at West Bloomfield) along with Grace and Tim, who are Levi’s new friends. Levi was the main character, and he struggled to care for his brother while his father attended to his own needs after their mother’s unexpected death. A car accident took her life. Although frustrated by his brother’s needs, Levi demonstrated strong determination to care for his brother while also trying to meet some of his own needs.
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, like Zack, experience a host of serious issues, such as becoming overwhelmed by too much noise. Zack would scream and be completely out of control if faced with specific difficulties. Levi took Zack to the Northern Michigan University (NMU) gym in Marquette. He became overwhelmed when young men play a basketball game. The noise is too much for Zack. Children with ASD often possess intense sensory sensitivities. Levi forgot his noise-canceling headphones. Levi had to rush him out of the gym. Zack performs repetitive actions when he continuously participates in coding activities. Coding was one of the ways Zack communicated. They may have trouble forming friendships due to their communication challenges and social difficulties. Levi had his work cut out for him when his father left him in charge of taking care of Zack full-time.
A couple of the main themes are patience and the importance of friends. Levi pulls off an elaborate scheme to get Zack to walk to the gym at NMU. He establishes a plethora of clues which need to be solved by Zack. The clues resemble a scavenger hunt. Each location provides a clue to the next location that needs to be found. They finally end up at the NMU gym, Levi’s desired location. Levi participated in bouldering which was climbing on boulders, low cliffs and walls while he lived at West Bloomfield. He wants to pick up the skill again. He misses his old life with friends and activities he liked. He meets friends at the gym who help him manage Zack and continue an activity he has feared but also enjoyed. Levi missed his friend Matt but ended up having very good friends he played basketball with, climbed walls with and played saxophone with the school band.
The book that came to mind while reading this book was mentioned several times “I love You to the Moon and Back” by Amelia Hepworth. The book is based on boundless and unconditional affection that represents the vast physical distance to the moon and returning to earth. I imagine Zack took the book literally and referred to his mother’s love by the existence of the moon and how far it was away from earth. Levi had to read this book nightly to his brother Zack and hand him his stuffed toy called Moon Bear each night. His mother, before her death, read the book to Zack nightly. Grace, one of Levi’s friends, told him about the Supermoon since Zack wanted to get closer to his mother by seeing the moon. They went outside at night to see the supermoon and Zack thought he saw his mother’s face in the moon but was sad because his mother’s eyes weren’t twinkling. Zack thought moving further north got him closer to his mother when he moved to Marquette. Many movies exist that include the moon, too many to consider.
I can relate to this book in so many ways. I became angry with Levi’s father who abandoned him and his brother to mourn by himself in his bedroom and then he got heavily involved in his work at NMU and left Levi to care for his brother by himself. My mother did the same thing to me which I feel robbed me of some of my childhood. She assigned me too much responsibility for my younger sister. I was eight years older than my sister. When I was visiting my grandparents, my father had to pick me up because my sister was not eating. She was about a year old at the time and became very dependent on me. Levi’s father ignored his son’s needs and seem to only care about his needs. Levi decided early on that he could not count on him. Fortunately, my sister did not have obvious mental health issues, but I still didn’t have anyone to help me with my responsibilities. Levi had friends who helped him out.
I learned a lot about the wall climbing sport. Lipshaw introduced a multitude of information about the sport and even provided a “Climbing Term Glossary.” Levi sought to practice this sport to probably give himself an outlet when dealing with his grief and to provide some normalcy back into his life after their move to their new home. The term Yooper was introduced which referred to a person who lives in the U.P. I lived in the U.P. all my life so I am definitely considered a Yooper. Levi who just moved to Marquette was still considered a Troll, someone who has lived south of the Mackinac Bridge. Lipshaw bridged the term Yooper with Levi’s ability to wall climb.
in Decoding the Moon, Lipshaw offers an endearing story about a family’s struggles as a result of great loss. Managing the difficulties faced by a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder was delineated throughout the book. Coding was described in depth and it was notable how Lipshaw associated Zack’s needs with this skill. Grief can manifest in many ways and Levi managed to get past his in order to help his brother. Could Levi convince Zack to climb so he could get closer to the moon to say goodbye to his mother? Lipshaw brings to life the psychological aspects of a fractured family while they navigate a heartbreaking loss.
Title: Decoding the Moon
Author: Suzanne Jacobs Lipshaw
